НОУ ВПО ИНСТИТУТ УПРАВЛЕНИЯ, БИЗНЕСА И ПРАВА
И.В. Докучаева
УЧЕБНО-МЕТОДИЧЕСКИЙ КОМПЛЕКС
ДИСЦИПЛИНЫ
ПРАКТИЧЕСКАЯ СТИЛИСТИКА АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА
Ростов-на-Дону
2011
Учебно-методический комплекс материалов по дисциплине «Практическая стилистика
английского языка» разработан в соответствии с требованиями Государственного
образовательного стандарта высшего образования и предназначен для студентов, обучающихся
по специальности 031001.65 «Филология» по специализации «Зарубежная филология
(английский язык и литература, второй иностранный язык)».
Учебно-методический комплекс одобрен решением кафедры «Филология» (протокол № 5
от 27 декабря 2010 г.), утверждён и рекомендован к печати Учебно-методическим советом
образовательного проекта «Гуманитарные технологии в управлении и бизнесе» Института
управления, бизнеса и права (протокол № 4 от 10.04.2009).
Учебно-методический комплекс содержит учебную программу курса, учебнотематические планы проведения лекционных и практических занятий, список основной и
дополнительной учебной литературы, конспекты лекций, задания по выполнению
самостоятельной работы, структуру и балльную оценку рейтингового контроля знаний,
перечень контрольных вопросов по дисциплине, тестовые задания для самопроверки.
Составитель: канд.филол.наук, доцент Докучаева И.В.
Рецензенты:
докт.филол.наук, доцент каф. языкознания и иностранных языков ГОУ ВПО
филиала Российской Академии Правосудия Саркисьянц В.Р.;
канд.пед.наук, доцент кафедры «Филология» НОУ ВПО ИУБиП Галоян Я.Э.
Ростовского
СОДЕРЖАНИЕ
Введение
1. Содержание дисциплины
2. Учебно-тематический план
2.1 Лекционные занятия
2.2 Практические занятия
2.3 Учебно-методическое обеспечение дисциплины
3. Конспекты лекций
4. Практические задания для стилистического анализа
5. Организация самостоятельной работы
5.1 Содержание самостоятельной работы
5.2 Список художественных произведений для самостоятельного чтения и анализа
5.3 Примерное содержание дискуссионных форумов
6. Рейтинговая система контроля знаний студентов
6.1 Структура и балльная оценка рейтингов по дисциплине
6.2 Содержание рейтингового контроля
6.3 Тестовые задания для самопроверки
6.4. Вопросы для проведения итогового аттестационного контроля
ВВЕДЕНИЕ
Курс практической стилистики предназначен для закрепления на практике основ стилистики
современного английского языка с учётом новейших исследований в данной области.
Практическая стилистика тесно связана с такими дисциплинами как «Практика устной и
письменной речи», «Практическая фонетика», «Практическая грамматика», «Аналитическое
чтение» и вместе с ними составляет практический курс основного иностранного языка.
Основной целью дисциплины «Практическая стилистика английского языка» является
систематизация нормативных знаний по экспрессивной и функциональной стилистике,
приобретённых студентами при изучении курса теоретической стилистики, а также
формирование навыков и умений углублённого стилистического анализа художественного
текста.
В качестве основных задач практического курса стилистики выдвигаются следующие:
практическое ознакомление студентов с общими закономерностями строения,
функционирования и развития единиц стиля английского языка;
формирование на практике представления о системности указанных единиц и о роли
важнейших стилистических категорий в построении речи;
изучение на наглядных примерах специфических свойств различных категорий
стилистических единиц, направленное на углублённый анализ их функций и проявлений в
связном тексте. Курс практической стилистики состоит из лекционных и практических занятий.
По учебному плану на этот курс отведено 34 часа аудиторных занятий (из них 10 часов лекций
и 24 часа практических занятий). Лекционные занятия посвящены систематизации
теоретических аспектов стилистики английского языка в их практическом преломлении на
примере конкретных художественных текстов. На практических занятиях у студентов
формируются умения комплексного лингвостилистического анализа текстов, относящихся к
разным функциональным стилям, вырабатывается навык «стилистически цельного» восприятия
любого оригинального английского текста.
Программа курса практической стилистики рассчитана также на углублённую
самостоятельную работу студентов, на которую отводится 76 часов. Она включает подготовку
домашних заданий, а также независимое письменное составление развёрнутого
стилистического анализа художественных текстов.
В результате изучения дисциплины «Практическая стилистика английского языка» студент
должен
Знать:
- общие принципы стилистической организации устной и письменной речи;
- специфические свойства различных категорий единиц стиля английского языка;
- общие закономерности, формирующие тот или иной функциональный стиль.
Уметь:
- проводить основные этапы комплексного анализа художественного текста;
- определять средства и приёмы стилистики и их функции в тексте;
- выделять характерные экспрессивно-стилистические маркеры, относимые к
различным уровням языка;
- определять стилеобразующие средства текста;
- производить оценку значимости каждого элемента в речевом функционировании;
- выделять и определять важнейшие стилистические средства, формирующие данный
функциональный стиль.
Овладеть компетенциями:
- изложить содержание анализируемого произведения;
- определить авторскую идею;
- дать полный стилистический анализ художественного произведения
1. СОДЕРЖАНИЕ ДИСЦИПЛИНЫ
1. Speech styles of the English language. Colloquial speech vs literary speech. Informal and
formal manner of communication. The main functional styles. The style of scientific prose. Scientific
prose proper and popular scientific prose. Style of official documents. Newspaper style. Publicist style.
The style of newspaper and magazine articles. Essays. Oratorical style. The style of radio and
television commentators. Belles-lettres style. The style of poetry. The style of prose. The style of
drama. The leading linguistic features of the belles-lettres style: imagery and emotional language.
2. Stylistic differentiation of the English vocabulary. Neutral, literary and colloquial strata.
Literary stratum of words: archaisms, barbarisms, terms, neologisms. Colloquial stratum of words:
slang, vulgarisms, jargonisms, dialectal words. Denotative meaning of the word. Connotative meaning
of the word. Connotation in the word’s dictionary meaning. An emotive component of meaning.
Stylistic reference. Words of literary stylistic layer (Standard English). Words of non-literary stylistic
layer (Sub-standard English)
3. Types of narration. The author’s narrative. The author’s narrative proper and entrusted
narrative. Dialogue. Interior speech of the personage. Stream-of-consciousness technique. Represented
(reported) speech. Represented uttered speech. Represented inner speech. Represented speech and its
peculiarities: vocabulary, syntax, punctuation, graphical means. The borderlines between the author’s
speech and represented speech. Stylistic functions of the represented speech. Narrative compositional
forms: narrative proper, description, argumentation.
4. Language, the medium of literature. Denotation and connotation in imaginative literature.
Connotative function of speech sound clusters. Connotative function of grammar categories.
Connotative function of word stylistic reference. Literary text as poetic structure. Principles of poetic
structure cohesion. Components of poetic structure. Macro-components of poetic structure. Microcomponents of poetic structure. Tropes and figures of speech. Phono-graphical level. Morphological
level. Lexical stylistic devices. Syntactical stylistic devices. Lexico-syntactical stylistic devices.
2. УЧЕБНО-ТЕМАТИЧЕСКИЙ ПЛАН
№
п/п
Темы лекций
1
Functional styles
2
Stylistic differentiation
vocabulary
Краткое содержание лекций
of
Colloquial vs literary type of
communication
Oral vs written form of
communication
Scientific style
The style of official documents
Newspaper style
Publicist style
Belles –lettres or fiction style
English Neutral, literary and colloquial strata
Word and its semantic structure
Кол-во
часов
2.1 Лекционные занятия
2
2
3
Types of narration
4
Literary text as poetic structure
Connotational meaning of a word
The role of the context in the
actualization of meaning
Author’s narrative
Dialogue
Interior speech
Represented speech
Compositional forms
Principles of poetic structure cohesion
Components of poetic structure.
Macro – components of poetic
structure
Micro – components of poetic
structure.
Tropes and figures of speech
Итого:
2
4
10
№
п/п
Темы практических занятий
1
The essay as literary form
2
Short story, its literary and linguostylistic characteristics
3
The genre of novel
Краткое содержание занятий
Adolescence by Bertrand Russell
The Tigress and her Mate by James
Thurber
On Marriage by G.Mikes
The Law by Langston Hughes
About Arguments by G.Mikes
The Age of Science and Technology
by John Silver
How to be the Center of the Universe
by G.Mikes
Mediterranean Islands, July by
A.Bennet
Football Girl by Katherine Brusk
Mabel by S.Maugham
Success Story by J.G.Cozzens
The Story of Hermione by C.Hare
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott
Fitzgerald. Stylistic analysis
Итого:
Всего:
Кол-во
часов
2.2 Практические занятия
4
8
12
24
34
2.3 Учебно-методическое обеспечение дисциплины
2.3.1 Основная литература
1. И.В. Арнольд. Стилистика. Современный английский язык: Учебник для вузов – М.: Флинта:
Наука, 2002
2. Ю.М.Скребнев. Основы стилистики английского языка: Учебник для вузов (на английском
языке) – М.: Астрель, Аст, 2000
3. V.A.Kukharenko. A Book of Practice in Stylistics – M.: 1986
4. I.R.Galperin. Stylistics – M.: 1971
2.3.2 Дополнительная литература
1. В.Я.Задорнова. Стилистика английского языка. Методические указания – М.: 1986
2. В.Я.Задорнова. Восприятие и интерпретация художественного текста – М.: 1984
3. В.А.Кухаренко. Интерпретация текста – М.: Просвещение, 1988
4. Л.С.Головчинская. Совершенствуйте свой английский. В 5 кн.: Книга 5 – М: ООО
Издательство «Астрель», ООО «Издательство Аст», 2000
5. V.A.Kukharenko. Seminars in Style – M.: 1971
6. David Crystal. The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of the English Language – London, 1995
7. F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby. – Penguin Popular Classics, 2004
8. W.S.Maugham. The Moon and Sixpence. – М: Издательство «Менеджер», 2004
2.3.3 Методические пособия
Докучаева И.В. Практическая стилистика английского языка. Учебно-методический комплекс.
– Ростов н/Д: ИУБиП, 2004
2.3.4 Программное обеспечение
СДО Прометей / Библиотека / Электронный УМК «Практическая стилистика английского
языка»
3. КОНСПЕКТЫ ЛЕКЦИЙ
LECTURE 1. FUNCTIONAL STYLES
Not once by now you must have noticed that identical themes can find quite different realizations in
the language. If we take cosmic flights for instance, we shall find scientific treatise based on precise
data, calculations, strict logical reasoning, we shall also find numerous newspaper reports announcing
facts concerning cosmonauts, their flight, their landing etc.: and of course we shall find not one
example of poetry dedicated to the same theme, where poets inspired by the magnificent achievements
of their fellow citizens pour out their feelings and emotions in emphatic lines; on the other hand there
must be various official documents in which step by step the proceedings, preliminary to the flight,
were scrupulously registered alongside with all the details of the flight itself; and we must also
mention almost an army of writers who foresaw the actual event and whose imagination created
numerous fiction-science novels and stories.
As will be agreed, the theme in all the above-mentioned instances will be roughly the same, while
its rendering will depend on numerous factors: when, who, for whom etc. one speaks. This possibility
of choosing a suitable form for our idea confirms the fact of versatility of language means, of their
elasticity .and of their belonging to one or another domain of human communication. These domains
caused by the aims and conditions of communication are called styles of speech.
The word "style" through long usage and misusage, interpretation and misinterpretation has become
highly polysemantic, and in every branch of linguistics or art or literature has its own understanding
and functioning.
Here we shall speak of the so-called functional styles of speech, each of which is a system of
closely related lexical, phonetic and syntactical means understood by the people, speaking this
language, as a whole, as a unity serving a definite aim in communication.
Naturally, different languages present a different scheme of distribution of language means, i. e. a
different scale of styles, but the principle of differentiation remains the same.
As to the English language, most linguists agree, to single out such main functional styles in it:
1. The style of scientific prose, or scientific style;
2. The style of official documents, or official style;
3. Newspaper style;
4. Publicist style;
5. Belle-lettres or fiction style.
Of course, though each of the enumerated styles presents a unity, an organized system, one should
not accept these unities as barred from one another. On the contrary, they very often overlap, so that
the newspaper style may "borrow" a feature, characteristic of the style of fiction, or the latter may use
contributions from the scientific style etc. but these facts do not destroy the system, because they are
incidental and are always used with the changed function, different from that with which they are used
in their “home” style. For example, terms in scientific prose make an obligatory, permanent, essential
feature, while their appearance in the style of fiction is only sporadic, and their function is not to
directly name objects, thus logically developing the utterance (as it is in the style of scientific prose),
but 'to characterize a person, the place etc., i.e. it becomes indirect and emotive.
Certain styles, though independently existing, stand rather close to one another 'in the general
system of the language, so, e. g. the style of fiction stands closer to the newspaper style than to the
official style.
You will observe this and other points from separate detailed characteristics of each style, to which
task we are now proceeding.
1.1 Scientific Style
Quite evidently each branch of science has its own themes and subjects, and a treatise devoted to
problems of biology will look very differently from the one about the grammatical patterns of the
language. And, still, we can state that, in spite of the divergence of subject matter, scientific works
have common features which allow us to single out scientific style as one of the functional styles of the
English language.
What are its main characteristics, then?
From the lexical point of view scientific style is characterized by the excessive use of terms, literary
and neutral words mainly in their direct meanings; complete absence of dialectal, slang or vulgar
words; almost complete absence of standard colloquial words comparatively limited vocabulary,
smaller range of word-building patterns; selective usage of personal pronouns ( i. e. the 2nd person is
not used at all; 3rd person singular is represented mainly through "it"; 1st person plural "we" is
definitely favored to 1st person singular "I" etc.).
Syntactically a sentence or an utterance is characterized by structures prompted by strictly logical
thinking, emphatic syntax is completely avoided: such syntactical speech division means are frequent
as: "on the one hand... on the other hand", "first.., second.., etc." Partial or final completion of an idea
is marked by conclusive conjunctions: "so", "thus", and others; homogeneous members with such
syntactical termination as "etc.", "& o.", or conjunction “i.e.” are also used frequently.
Participial constructions are mainly placed before the modified word; paragraphs are connected not
only semantically, but by evident syntactical means of connection. Simple sentences are rated lower
then those with complicated structure. Among the latter ones complex sentences prevail over
compound sentences.
The author’s individuality is not evident in scientific style, because personal feelings and emotions
are not allowed there, while personal views and evaluations have to be objectively proved.
A scientific article may be either addressed to specialists in a particular scientific field, or it may be
written with the aim of popularization, so that it could be understood not only by the professionals but
by a much larger audience. Thus we may speak of two trends within the style of scientific prose:
scientific prose proper and popular scientific prose.
All above-mentioned characteristics are fully applied to the first type and have their bounds slightly
widened in the second, one.
In popular scientific works the author strives to be understood by people who might not be wellacquainted with the subject of his article, so, besides adhering to all the typical paraphernalia of the
scientific style he resorts also to means, which, would help to bring home his idea – comparisons with
objects already known, metaphor which would picturesquely illustrate the point etc. Such
implementation of expressive means of the language by no means changes the essence of the scientific
style or makes a scientific article a work of fiction, because they are used only occasionally, and their
main function is not aesthetic, as in fiction, but communicative, as in scientific prose.
1.2 Style of Official Documents
This functional style deals with various sorts of official documents: business and commercial
correspondence, military orders, decisions of courts of law, governmental issues etc. Here again we
shall find peculiarities, characterizing only diplomatic or military or law documents, but all of them
have common features these latter constitute the main characteristics of official style.
We shall find plenty of terms and terminological expressions, a great number of which are
expressed by two or more words. Frequent repetitions of the same word combinations bring forth rapid
formation of clichés, phraseological units, set formulas: "in witness thereof", "to state and affirm", "on
behalf of", «hereby", "there from" etc. This in its turn leads to rigorous forms of expression which
change very slowly and with difficulty, opposing the general tendency of the language towards change,
progress and perfection. Thus archaisms become a characteristic feature of the vocabulary of the
official style.
But it is not only the lexical side of official documents that undergoes few or no changes. Its
syntactical side also reflects stability and permanence thus abounding in archaic constructions.
The essence of an official document lies in its statement of certain relations between governments,
powers, companies etc. And this subject matter stipulates the form: to emphasize the equality of parties
in the discussed problem, or to show equal importance of a number of enumerated items of a treaty,
parallel constructions are in frequent demand. To embrace a whole condition of a treaty (charter,
chapter etc.) very long sentences are used, so not infrequently a document of considerable size
numbers only two, three or even one sentence with a complicated system of co- and subordination.
Figures and lettering are employed to specify each separate item.
Syntactical peculiarities of the official style are marked graphically - a new line often begins with a
small letter; the new paragraph thus created expresses one point of a condition which occupies a whole
page. Paragraphs in such cases are separated by semicolons; commas, dashes and colons remaining for
punctuation within paragraphs. Other graphical means, such as italics, bold type, capital lettering is
also extremely characteristic of the official style.
Permanent application of the same denomination for the same objects or phenomena made it
possible to shorten a great number of them, thus making shortenings and abbreviations an
indispensable feature of the official style: e.g. U. K. (United Kingdom), UNO (United Nations
Organization); B.A. (British Admiralty) and many others.
In official documents one will necessarily meet repetition, which is explained by the fact that
synonyms in naming one and the same object (phenomenon, item etc.) are avoided for fear of
misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the text which might cause serious economic, political or
financial trouble.
As it was already stated, words in official documents are used in their direct logical meanings. The
only exception is presented by the opening and conclusive formulas of official-correspondence where
rigorous rules demand expressions of respect- and utmost readiness to serve and please. Here
nowadays we may speak of trite epithets and hyperboles, because "Dear Sirs", or "Yours faithfully"
remain fully divorced from the contents of the letter itself. Originally though, such beginnings and
ends went in complete accordance with the letter and as such could neither have been considered trite
hyperboles nor fixed epithets and clichés.
This fact once again proves that functional styles present a historical category which depends upon
the actual state or relations among the members of a certain society.
1.3 Newspaper Style
As it is seen from the title, here we shall deal with newspaper materials, though it should be
remembered that not all placed in a newspaper belongs to the newspaper style. Its main communicative
aim is to pass information. This is carried out by various brief and longer informational articles,
announcements, advertisements etc. On the other hand, editorial, numerous articles on art, politics,
economic etc. have for their primary concern not so much to inform the reader about a certain fact, as
to persuade him, to prove the author’s (the paper's, the party’s etc.) opinion. So these latter make a part
of materials referred to publicist style.
Most English and American newspapers are traditionally voluminous, so the natural desire to attract
the reader's attention and to draw it to this or that particular piece was the primary cause of origination
of many typical features characterizing the newspaper style.
Graphical features of choosing and changing the type within the same article, the arrangement of
lines and types in its title – all these are extremely significant, for it is the headlines that are the first to
catch the reader's eye. As a rule 2 – 3 (or even 4) types of diminishing size are used to head one article.
The vocabulary of the article is a mixture of literary and colloquial words, so that it could be
adequately read and understood by the majority of the reading population.
Shortenings and abbreviations are not infrequent both in the headings and in the articles
themselves: "A - bomb", "A - war" (for atomic bomb, atomic war), "H-tests", "M. P." (Member of
Parliament or Military Police), "T.U.C." (for Trade Union Committee) and many others.
Phraseology of newspaper articles is well-developed, for frequent repetitions of the same situations
(with names, places, powers etc. changed) stipulates resorting to the once-found wording, which in its
turn leads to the fast establishing of word combinations as set, thus originating peculiar newspaper
clichés and phraseologisms - "to unleash (to instigate) a war"; "to face facts", "warm end friendly
atmosphere of the talks" etc.
The syntax of the article, unlike that of the title, is complicated, with one sentence including a
number of, clauses, participial constructions and extended prepositional structures; so that the content
of the article could be squeezed into 1-3 sentences.
1.4 Publicist Style
Publicist style includes a number of subdivisions; the style of newspaper and magazine articles,
essays, oratorical style and the style of radio and television commentators. The general aim of publicist
style is to convince the reader or the listener that the interpretation given by the writer or the speaker is
the only correct one and to cause him to accept the point of view expressed in the article or in the
speech.
The peculiarities of publicist style,—its logical argumentation combined with emotional appeal—
account for the fact that it has something in common both with scientific prose and belle—lettres style.
The emotional appeal is generally achieved by the use of words with emotive meaning and the use of
stylistic devices. But stylistic devices used in publicist style are not fresh or genuine and the individual
element true of belle—lettres style is usually not present here.
Publicist style is the only style which has two forms: written and oral. Articles and essays belong to the
written form of publicist style while oratorical style and the style of radio and television commentators
belong to its oral form.
Still the oral form of utterance does not essentially change the main linguistic features of these
subdivisions of publicist style which also belong to the written type of speech: the form of a
monologue, the coherent and logical syntactical structure and careful paragraphing with an extended
system of connectives, the vocabulary with a great number of literary and bookish words.
The aim of newspaper articles is to interpret the news, to comment on the political events of the day
and to convince the reader that the interpretation of the facts given by the paper or the magazine is the
only correct one. Like any other subdivisions of publicist style newspaper and magazine articles
convince the reader not only by logical-argumentation but .by emotional appeal as well.
So, the vocabulary of articles contains terms (political, economic etc.), newspaper clichés and
emotionally coloured vocabulary and stylistic devices.
Essay is usually a short literary article on philosophical, aesthetic or literary subject. It never goes
deep into the subject but merely touches upon it.
Essay is often written in the first person and has some individual element. Some essays are written
in a highly emotional manner resembling the style of belle-lettres, others have little coloring and
resemble scientific prose.
As oratorical speech is an oral subdivision of publicist style it has certain typical features of the oral
type of speech such as the use of direct address (ladies and gentlemen, Sir, honorable members, etc.),
the use of contractions (I'll, don't, etc.), the use of alliteration.
The desire of the speaker to rouse the audience and to keep it in suspense results in the use of
emotionally coloured words and various stylistic devices both lexical and syntactical. Such lexical
stylistic devices as epithets, metaphors, similes, periphrases, allusions are widely used in the oratorical
speech.
They are traditional, not fresh or genuine as genuine stylistic devices may draw the attention of the
audience away from the main point of the speech.
As the audience relies only on its memory, the speaker often resorts to repetition of various kinds to
enable the audience to follow him and retain the main points of the speech.
Among other syntactical stylistic devices widely used in the oratorical speech are antithesis, rhetorical
and non-rhetorical questions, exclamatory sentences, climax, and suspense.
1.5 Belles-lettres Style
Belles—lettres style (or in other words poetic style) has three subdivisions or sub-styles: 1) the style
of poetry proper (verse), 2) the style of prose, 3) the style of drama. Each has its own peculiarities but
all of them have some common leading features resulting from their common aim. The aim of belleslettres style is to inform, communicate facts and ideas to the reader and to reveal certain feelings,
affecting the reader emotionally.
The leading linguistic feature of all the subdivisions of belles-lettres style is the use of the emotional
language. The degree and character of imagery, that is the use of figurative way of expressing ideas
varies in different subdivisions of this style. The element of emotion is also different in the three
subdivisions.
The writer, the poet or the playwright imposes the desired effect on the reader sometimes quite
imperceptibly, sometimes in a straightforward manner. Still these main features are quite indispensable
in belles-letters style.
Imagery may be created by various linguistic means. Imagery makes speech concrete, picturesque
and palpable. Images help the author to make the reader see what he sees, hear what he hears and feel
what he feels.
The most important linguistic means of creating imagery are lexical: all stylistic devices, especially
those based on the interaction of logical and contextual meanings of the word (metaphor, metonymy,
irony, and the like). These figurative expressions make the reader see two things simultaneously, and
picture a definite and palpable image.
But not only lexical stylistic devices are means of creating imagery. Words in their logical meaning
may be employed in such a way and so artistically that the reader visualizes what the author desires to
picture. Hemingway often makes the reader feel what his character feels without using the word
denoting this emotion. The mere repetition of the verb "look" in his story "The Short Happy Life of
Francis Macomber" as an expression of a certain reaction and response to other characters' actions and
words makes the reader read between the lines and imagine Mrs. Macomber’s thoughts and feelings.
So implication which is created in this story is of great stylistic value: it contributes to the
figurativeness of speech.
"You've got your lion," Robert Wilson said to him," and a damned fine one too".
Mrs. Macomber looked at Wilson quickly...
"He is a good lion, isn't he? Macomber said. His wife looked at him now. She looked at both men as
though she had never seen them before.
One, Wilson, the white hunter, she knew she had never truly seen before ... He smiled at her now and
she looked away from his face at the way his shoulders sloped...
"Well, here's to the lion", Robert Wilson said. He smiled at her again and, not smiling, she looked
curiously at her husband.
Syntactical means also contribute to figurative character of speech.
Phonetic means may also help the author to achieve figurative speech, but of a different kind, making
the reader hear what he himself hears. Note a certain acoustic image created by onomatopoeia in the
passage from G. Green’s novel "The Power and Glory”:
"The mestizo watched the mules pick their way along the narrow stony path with a look of wistful
greed: they disappeared round a shoulder of rock — crack, crack, crack - the sound of their hooves
contracted into silence."
In poetry the role of phonetic means is naturally great. The combination of rhythm, rhyme,
alliteration creates a specific acoustic image which helps the poet to express his feelings and thoughts.
The other leading feature of belles-lettres style – the emotional element – is closely linked with the
first feature – imagery – and to a greater extent results from it.
The degree of emotional element varies in different subdivisions of belles-lettres style and in
different individual styles. The element of emotion is higher in poetry proper, where the poet usually
directly reveals his feelings and personal evaluations and affects the reader emotionally. The element
of emotion in drama, on the other hand, is not high, the playwright’s individual evaluation is revealed
indirectly - through the manner of shaping the characters of the play.
In his novel "To Let" Galsworthy reveals his personal attitude to his characters indirectly. Still the
reader feels his subtle irony toward Jon and Fleur through the images he employs to describe them.
Read the beginning of the chapter "Mother and Son":
"To say that Jon Forsyte accompanied his mother to Spain unwillingly would scarcely have been
adequate. He went as a well-natured dog goes for a walk with its mistress, leaving a choice muttonbone on the lawn. He went looking back at it. Forsytes deprived of their mutton-bones are wont to
sulk. But Jon had little sulkiness in his composition. He adored his mother, and it was his first travel...
The fellow was subtle besides being naive. He never forgot that he was going to shorten the
proposed two months into six weeks, and must therefore show no sign of wishing to do so. For one
with so enticing a mutton-bone and so fixed an idea, he made a good enough traveling companion...”
Simile and litotes used to describe Jon (in the 1st paragraph), metaphor used to characterize Fleur (in
the 2d paragraph) disclose the author's ironical attitude to these personages.
Belles-lettres style is also characterized by the use of some peculiarities of the oral type of speech.
The degree of the oral type varies in different subdivisions, so in drama lexical, grammatical and
phonetic peculiarities of the oral type of speech are widely employed, while in poetry they are usually
not employed at all. As to the speech of prose style it is so various that some of its patterns may near
poetry proper, others – drama.
So in some stories by Maugham, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Mansfield the peculiarities of oral type of
speech are widely employed as dialogue is the main compositional design of these stories.
LECTURE 2. STYLISTIC DIFFERENTIATION OF ENGLISH VOCABULARY
2.1 Word and its Semantic Structure
The most essential feature of a word is that it expresses the concept of a thing, process,
phenomenon, naming (denoting) them. Concept is a logical category, its linguistic counterpart is
meaning. Meaning, as our outstanding scholar L. Vygotsky put it, is the unity of generalization,
communication and thinking. An entity of extreme complexity, the meaning of a word is liable to
historical changes, of which you know from the course of lexicology and which are responsible for the
formation of an expanded semantic structure of a word. This structure is constituted of various types of
lexical meanings, the major one being denotational, which informs of the subject of communication
and also including connotational, which informs about the participants and conditions of
communication.
An act of verbal communication between the speaker and the hearer is made possible primarily due
to the fact that units of communication (i.e. words) are referable to extra linguistic situations, things
meant. The word denotes a concrete thing as well as a concept of a thing; the word has a denotative
meaning. Thus, the word blue denotes an object that is blue (a blue dress) and the respective concept:
something blue or blueness. The word table denotes any object that is a table; it is the name of a whole
class of objects that are tables.
An isolated word table denotes the concept of the thing that is a table. The word table within a
certain context denotes a definite thing, i.e. has a definite meaning (He bought a deal table). The
property of the word enabling it to denote a concrete thing as well as a generalized concept of a thing
is an objective feature which has been worked out in the course of a people's history. The knowledge
of the word denotation is shared by all those who speak in the given language and this is what makes
communication possible. Denotative meaning is thus the loading task of any notional word.
The word besides denoting a concrete thing, action, or concept, may also carry a connotation, an
overtone. These overtones or connotations vary in character. They may express the speaker's attitude
to the thing spoken about (emotive component of meaning), or indicate the social sphere in which the
discourse takes place (stylistic reference). Both these components may be part of the word's dictionary
meaning, i.e. be present in the word when it is taken in isolation. They may, on the other hand, be part
of the word's contextual meaning, i.e. emerge in the word as a result of its correlation with other
words. Below we first consider connotation as part of the word's dictionary meaning — it being essential for readers to see the inherent properties of words — only to dwell at length later on the
connotations words acquire when they occur in texts.
The list and specification of connotational meanings varies with different linguistic schools and
individual scholars and includes such entries as pragmatic (directed at the perlocutionary effect of
utterance), associative (connected, through individual psychological or linguistic associations, with
related and non-related notions), ideological, or conceptual (revealing political, social, ideological
preferences of the user), evaluative (stating the value of the indicated notion), emotive (revealing the
emotional layer of cognition and perception), expressive (aiming at creating the image of the object in
question), stylistic (indicating "the register”, or the situation of the communication).
The above-mentioned meanings are classified as connotational not only because they supply
additional (and not the logical / denotational) information, but also because, for the most part, they are
observed not all at once and not in all words either. Some of them are more important for the act of
communication than the others. Very often they overlap. So, all words possessing an emotive meaning
are also evaluative (e. g. "rascal", "ducky"), though this rule is not reversed, as we can find nonemotive, intellectual evaluation (e. g. "good", "bad"). Also, all emotive words (or practically all, for
that matter) are also expressive, while there are hundreds of expressive words which cannot be treated
as emotive (take, for example the so-called expressive verbs, which not only denote some action or
process but also create their image, as in "to gulp" = to swallow in big lumps, in a hurry; or "to sprint"
= to run fast).
An emotive component of meaning may have linguistic expression, for example, the suffix – ie/y in
such words as birdie, or Freddy serves to express the diminutive/the hypocoristic. The emotive
component of meaning may have no specific linguistic form but be contained in the concept the given
word denotes, as for example, in the words horrid, terrifying, lovely, etc.
There are words of purely emotive meaning. These are interjections which differ from words with
denotative meanings (i.e. notional words) by their peculiar sound pattern: oh, ouch, alas, ohm etc.
They also differ by their syntactic role in an utterance: they are not components but equivalents of
sentences.
The number, importance and the overlapping character of connotational meanings incorporated into
the semantic structure of a word, are brought forth by the context, i.e. a concrete speech act that
identifies and actualizes each one. More than that: each context does not only specify the existing
semantic (both denotational and connotational) possibilities of a word, but also is capable of adding
new ones, or deviating rather considerably from what is registered in the dictionary. Because of that all
contextual meanings of a word can never be exhausted or comprehensively enumerated.
In semantic actualization of a word the context plays a dual role: on the one hand, it cuts off all
meanings irrelevant for the given communicative situation. On the other, it foregrounds one of the
meaningful options of a word, focusing the communicators' attention on one of the denotational or
connonational components of its semantic structure.
2.2 Stylistic Reference of a Word
The significance of the context is comparatively small in the field of stylistic connotations, because
the word is labeled stylistically before it enters some context, i.e. in the dictionary: recollect the wellknown contractions- vulg., arch., sl., etc., which make an indispensable part of a dictionary entry.
Verbal communication takes place in different spheres of human activity, such as everyday life,
business, science, etc. Each of these spheres has a peculiar mode of linguistic expression which is
generally known as a functional style. Words that are preferably used in one functional style are said to
have a stylistic reference conditioned by the respective sphere.
The overtone of stylistic reference is always present in the word alongside its denotative meaning.
This can well be illustrated by sets of words with similar denotative meanings: get — obtain —
procure; dismiss — discharge — sack; follow — pursue — go after. Words may be grouped together
on the basis of their common stylistic reference. Consider, for example, the following groups of words:
1) inquire 2) ask
obtain
get
proceed
go on
pursue
run after
seek
look for
Each of these two groups represents a different stylistic layer: the first group contains words of a
literary-bookish layer, the second — stylistically neutral words.
The word-stock of any given language can be roughly divided into three uneven groups, differing
from each other by the sphere of its possible use. The biggest division is made up of neutral words,
possessing no stylistic connotation and suitable for any communicative situation, two smaller ones are
literary and colloquial strata respectively.
While speaking about stylistic reference, the following factor should be emphasized: stylistic
reference can be recognized only when there is some common element to refer to. This common
element is the similarity, of denotation, or, in other words, synonymy of words. Where there is just one
word to denote a certain concept or object of reality there would be no question of stylistic reference.
Thus, the major dichotomy is to be found between stylistically neutral vs. stylistically marked words.
Subdivisions within the class of stylistically marked words are numerous. But the main opposition lies
between words of literary stylistic layer (words of Standard English) and those of non-literary
stylistic layer (words of Sub-Standard English).
Literary words, both general (also called learned, bookish, high-flown) and special, contribute to
the message the tone of solemnity, sophistication, seriousness, gravity, learnedness. They are used in
official papers and documents, in scientific communication, in high poetry, in authorial speech of
creative prose.
Colloquial words, on the contrary, mark the message as informal, non-official, conversational.
Apart from general colloquial words, widely used by all speakers of the language in their everyday
communication (e. g. "dad", "kid", "crony", "tan", "to pop'', "folks"), some special subgroups may be
mentioned.
Literary words serve to satisfy communicative demands of official, scientific, poetic messages,
while the colloquial ones are employed in non-official everyday communication. Though there is no
immediate correlation between the written and the oral forms of speech on the one hand, and the
literary and colloquial words, on the other, yet, for the most part, the first ones are mainly observed in
the written form, as most literary messages appear in writing. And vice versa: though there are many
examples of colloquialisms in writing (informal letters. diaries, certain passages of memoirs, etc.),
their usage is associated with the oral form of communication.
Consequently, taking for analysis printed materials we shall find literary words in authorial speech,
descriptions. considerations, while colloquialisms will be observed in the types of discourse,
simulating (copying) everyday oral communication- i.e., in the dialogue (or interior monologue) of a
prose work.
When we classify some speech (text) fragment as literary or colloquial it does not mean that all the
words constituting it have a corresponding stylistic meaning. More than that: words with a pronounced
stylistic connotation are few in any type of discourse, the overwhelming majority of its lexis being
neutral. As our famous philologist L.V. Shcherba once said- a stylistically coloured word is like a drop
of paint added to a glass of pure water and colouring the whole of it.
Each of the two named groups of words, possessing a stylistic meaning, is not homogeneous as to
the quality of the meaning, frequency of use, sphere of application, or the number and character of
potential users. This is why each one is further divided into the general, i.e. known to and used by
most native speakers in generalized literary (formal) or colloquial (informal) communication, and
special bulks. The latter ones, in their turn. are subdivided into subgroups, each one serving a rather
narrow, specified communicative purpose.
Words of literary stylistic layer (Standard English).
1) Terms, subdivided into: 1) popular terms of some special spheres of human knowledge known to
the public at large (typhoid, pneumonia); 2) terms used exclusively within a profession (phoneme,
micro-linguistics);
2) Poeticisms, words used exclusively in poetry and the like. Many of these words are archaic or
obsolete, such whilom (sometimes), aught (anything), ne (no, not), haply (may be); for ay (for ever),
ween (I suppose), he kens (he knows); childe(a nobleman's son);
3) Foreign words and barbarisms ( bon mot, negligee, au revoir, ad adsurdum, Bunderswhr). A
distinction is made between the two. Barbarisms are considered to be part of the vocabulary of the
given language constituting its peripheral layer. They are usually registered in dictionaries (a propos,
vis-a-vis, etc.) while foreign words are, as a rule, not found in dictionaries. In literature barbarisms are
generally used to lend local color: pied-a-terre (a small flat), croissants (breakfast, bread), etc. But it
would also be true to say that no straight line of demarcation can be drawn between the two groups.
Words of non-literary stylistic layer (Sub-standard English). This layer also includes several
subgroups:
1) Slang forms, the biggest one. Slang words, used by most speakers in very informal
communication, are highly emotive and expressive and as such, lose their originality rather fast and are
replaced by newer formations. This tendency to synonymic expansion results in long chains of
synonyms of various degrees of expressiveness, denoting one and the same concept. So, the idea of a
"pretty girl" is worded by more than one hundred ways in slang.
In only one novel by S. Lewis there are close to a dozen synonyms used by Babbitt, the central
character, in reference to a girl: "cookie", "tomato", "Jane", "sugar", "bird”, “cutie”, etc.
The substandard status of slang words and phrases, through universal usage, can be raised to the
standard colloquial: "pal”, "chum," "crony" for "friend"; "heavies", "woolies" for "thick panties";
"booze" for "liquor"; "dough" for "money"; "how's tricks" for "how's life"; "beat it" for "go away" and
many more – are examples of such a transition.
2) Jargonisms stand close to slang, also being substandard, expressive and emotive, but, unlike
slang they are used by limited groups of people, united either professionally (in this case we deal with
professional jargonisms, or professionalisms), or socially (here we deal with jargonisms proper). In
distinction from slang, jargonisms of both types cover a "narrow semantic field”: in the first case it is
that, connected with the technical side of some profession ( bull - one who buys shares at the stockexchange; bear - one who sells shares; sparks - a radio-operator; tin-hat - helmet, etc. In oil industry,
e.g., for the terminological "driller" (6ypoвик) there exist "borer", "digger", "wrencher", "hogger",
"brake weight"; for "pipeliner" (тpy6onроводчик) - "swabber", "bender", "cat", "old cat", "collarpecker", "hammerman"; for "geologist" - "smeller", "pebble pup", "rock hound", "witcher", etc. From
all the examples at least two points are evident: professionalisms are formed according to the existing
word-building patterns or present existing words in new meanings, and, covering the field of special
professional knowledge, which is semantically limited, they offer a vast variety of synonymic choices
for naming one and the same professional item
Jargonisms proper are characterized by similar linguistic features but differ in function and sphere of
application. They originated from the thieves' jargon (1'argo, cant) and served to conceal the actual
significance of the utterance from the uninitiated. Their major function thus was to be cryptic,
secretive This is why among them there are cases of conscious deformation of the existing words. The
so-called back jargon (or back slang) can serve as an example: in their effort to conceal the
machinations of dishonest card-playing, gamblers used numerals in their reversed form: "ano" for
"one", "owt" for “two”, “erth” for “three”.
Anglo-American tradition, starting with H. Partridge, a famous English lexicographer, dues not
differentiate between slang and jargonisms regarding these groups as one extensive stratum of words
divided into general slang, used by all, or most, speakers and special slang, limited by the
professional or social standing of the speaker . This debate appears to concentrate more on terminology
than on essence. Indeed slang (general slang) and jaroginisms (special slang) have much in common,
are emotive, expressive, unstable, fluctuating, tending to expanded synonymity within certain lexicosemantic groups and limited to a highly informal, substandard communication So it seems appropriate
to use the indicated terms as synonyms.
3) Vulgarisms are coarse words with a strong emotive meaning, mostly derogatory, normally
avoided in polite conversation. History of vulgarisms reflects the history of social ethics. So, in
Shakespearean times people were much more linguistically frank and disphemistic in their
communication than in the age of Enligtenment, or the Victorian era, famous for its prudish and
reserved manners. Nowadays words which were labelled vulgar in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries are considered such no more. In fact, at present we are faced with the reverse of the problem:
there are practically no words banned from use by the modern permissive society. Such intensifiers as
"bloody", "damned", "cursed", "hell of”, formerly deleted from literature and not allowed in
conversation, are. not only welcomed in both written and oral speech, but, due to constant repetition,
have lost much of their emotive impact and substandard quality. One of the best-known American
editors and critics Maxwell Perkins, working with the serialized 1929 magazine edition of
Hemingway's novel A. Farewell to Arms found that the publishers deleted close to a dozen words
which they considered vulgar for their publication. Preparing the hard-cover edition Perkins allowed
half of them back ("son of a bitch", '.''whore'', "whorehound," etc.). Starting from the late fifties no
publishing house objected to any coarse or obscene expressions. Consequently, in contemporary West
European and American prose all words, formerly considered vulgar for public use (including the fourletter words), are even approved by the existing moral and ethical standards of society and censorship.
4) Dialectal words are normative and devoid of any stylistic meaning in regional dialects, but used
outside of them, carry a strong flavour of the locality where they belong. In Great Britain four major
dialects are distinguished: Lowland Scotch, Northern, Midland (Central) and Southern. In the USA
three major dialectal varieties are distinguished: New England, Southern and Midwestern (Central,
Midland). These classifications do not include many minor local variations. Dialects markedly differ
on the phonemic level: one and the same phoneme is differently pronounced in each of them. They
differ also on the lexical level, having their own names for locally existing phenomena and also
supplying locally circulating synonyms for the words, accepted by the language in general. Some of
them have entered the general vocabulary and lost their dialectal status ("lad", "pet", "squash",
“plaid").
Each of the above-mentioned four groups justifies its label of special colloquial words as each one,
due to varying reasons, has application limited to a certain group of people or to certain
communicative situations.
LECTURE 3. TYPES OF NARRATION
3.1 The Author’s Narrative
A work of creative prose is never homogeneous as to the form and essence of the information it
carries. Both very much depend on the viewpoint of the addresser, as the author and his personages
may offer different angles of perception of the same object. Naturally, it is the author who organizes
this effect of polyphony, but we, the readers, while reading the text, identify various views with
various personages, not attributing them directly to the writer. The latter's views and emotions are most
explicitly expressed in the author's speech (or the author's narrartive). The unfolding of the plot is
mainly concentrated here, personages are given characteristics, the time and the place of action are
also described here, as the author sees them. The author's narrative supplies the reader with direct
information about the author's preferences and objections, beliefs and contradictions, i.e. serves the
major source of shaping up the author's image.
In contemporary prose, in an effort to make his writing more .plausible, to impress the reader with
the effect of authenticity of the described events, the writer entrusts some fictitious character (who
might also participate in the narrated events) with the task of story-telling. The writer himself thus
hides behind the figure of the narrator, presents all the events of the story from the latter's viewpoint
and only sporadically emerges in the narrative with his own considerations which may reinforce, or
contradict those expressed by the narrator. This form of the author's speech is called entrusted
narrative. The structure of the entrusted narrative is much more complicated than that of the author's
narrative proper, because instead of one commanding, organizing image of the author, we have the
hierarchy of the narrator's image seemingly arranging the pros and contras of the related problem and,
looming above the narrator's image, there stands the image of the author, the true and actual creator of
it all, responsible for all the views and evaluations of the text and serving the major and predominant
force of textual cohesion and unity.
Entrusted narrative can be carried out in the 1st person singular, when the narrator proceeds with
his story openly and explicitly, from his own name, as, e.g., in The Catcher in the Rye by J. D.
Salinger, or The Great Gatsby by Sc. Fitzgerald, or All the King's Men by R. P. Warren. In the first
book Holden Caulfield himself retells about the crisis in his own life which makes the focus of the
novel. In the second book Nick Carraway tells about Jay Gatsby, whom he met only occasionally, so
that to tell Gatsby's life-story he had to lean on the knowledge of other personages too. And in the third
book Jack Burden renders the dramatic career of Willie Stark, himself being one of the closest
associates of the man. In the first case the narration has fewer deviations from the main line, than in
the other two in which the narrators have to supply the reader also with the information about
themselves and their connection with the protagonist.
Entrusted narrative may also be anonymous. The narrator does not openly claim responsibility for
the views and evaluations but the manner of presentation, the angle of description very strongly
suggest that the story is told not by the author himself but by some of his factotums, which we see, e.
g., in the prose of Fl. O'Connor, C. McCullers, E. Hemingway, E. Caldwell.
3.2 Speech Characteristics of a Personage
The narrative, both the author's and the entrusted, is not the only type of narration observed in
creative prose. A very important place here is occupied by dialogue, where personages express their
minds in the form of uttered speech. In their exchange of remarks the participants of the dialogue,
while discussing other people and their actions, expose themselves too. So dialogue is one of the most
significant forms of the personage's self-characterization, which allows the author "to seemingly
eliminate himself from the process.
Another form, which obtained a position of utmost significance in contemporary prose, is interior
speech of the personage, which allows the author (and the readers) to peep into the inner world of the
character, to observe his ideas and views in the making.
Interior speech is best known in the form of interior monologue, a rather lengthy piece of the text
(half a page and over) dealing with one major topic of the character's thinking, offering causes for his
past, present or future actions. Short in-sets of interior speech present immediate mental and
emotional reactions of the personage to the remark or action of other characters.
The results of the work of our brain are not intended for communication and are, correspondingly,
structured in their own unique way. The imaginative reflection of mental processes, presented in the
form of interior speech, being a part of the text one of the major functions of which is communicative,
necessarily undergoes some linguistic structuring to make it understandable for the readers. In extreme
cases, though, this desire to be understood by others is outshadowed by the author's effort to portray
the disjointed, purely associative manner of thinking, which makes interior speech almost or
completely incomprehensible. These cases exercise the so-called stream-of-consciousness technique
which is especially popular with representatives of modernism in contemporary literature.
So the personage's viewpoint can be realized in the uttered (dialogue) and inner (interior speech)
forms. Both are introduced into the text by the author's remarks containing indication of the
personage (his name or the name-substitute) and of the act of speaking (thinking) expressed by such
verbs as "to say", "to think" and their numerous synonyms.
To separate and individualize the sphere of the personage, language means employed in the
dialogue and interior speech differ from those used in the author's narrative and, in their unity and
combination, they constitute the personage's speech characteristic which is indispensable in the
creation of his image in the novel,
3.3 Represented Speech
The last type of narration observed in artistic prose is a peculiar blend of the viewpoints and
language spheres of both the author and the character. It was first observed and analyzed almost a
hundred years ago, with the term represented (reported) speech attached to it. Represented speech
serves to show either the mental reproduction of a once uttered remark, or the character's thinking. The
first case is known as represented uttered speech, the second one as represented inner speech. The
latter is close to the personage's interior speech in essence, but differs from it in form: it is rendered in
the third person singular and may have the author's qualitative words, i.e. it reflects the presence of
the author's viewpoint alongside that of the character, while interior speech belongs to the personage
completely, formally too, which is materialized through the first-person pronouns and the language
idiosyncrasies of the character.
The types of narration briefly described above are singled out on the basis of the viewpoint
commanding the organization of each one. If it is semantics of the text that is taken as the foundation
of the classification then we shall deal with the three narrative compositional forms traditionally
analyzed in poetics and stylistics. They are: narrative proper where the unfolding of the plot is
concentrated. This is the most dynamic compositional form of the text. Two other forms – description
and argumentation – are static. The former supplies the details of the appearance of people and things
"populating" the book, of the place and time of action, the latter offers causes and effects of the
personage's behaviour, his (or the author's) considerations about moral, ethical, ideological and other
issues. It is rather seldom that any of these compositional forms is used in a "pure", uninterrupted way.
As a rule they intermingle even within the boundaries of a paragraph.
All the compositional forms can be found in each of the types of narration but with strongly varying
frequencies.
LECTURE 4. LITERARY TEXT AS POETIC STRUCTURE
4.1 Verbal and Supra-verbal Layers of the Literary Text
While reading a literary text one gradually moves from the first word of it on to the last. The words
one reads combine into phrases, phrases into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, paragraphs making
up larger passages: chapters, sections, and parts. All these represent the verbal layer of the literary text.
At the same time when one reads a text of imaginative literature one cannot but see another layer
gradually emerging out .of these verbal sequences. One sees that word sequences represent a series of
events, conflicts and circumstances in which characters of the literary work happen to find themselves.
One sees that all these word-sequences make a composition, a plot, a genre, and a style, that they all
go to create an image of reality and that through this image the author conveys his message, his vision
of the world.
Plot, theme, composition, genre, style, image and the like make the supra-verbal (poetic) layer
which is, nevertheless, entirely revealed in verbal sequences. The supra-verbal and the verbal layers of
the text are thus inseparable from each other. The fact that all the elements of the literary text, such as
those mentioned above, materialize in word sequences makes the latter acquire a meaning that is
superimposed by the whole of the literary text.
Thus, the text of a literary work or any part of such is not a mere linguistic entity, it is something
more involved. The involved nature of the literary text makes it entirely individual (unique) makes it
essentially unsubstitutable for any other word sequences. When we substitute some part of a literary
text, i.e. some given word sequence for a synonymous one, we simultaneously change the content, for
the content of the literary work is indivisible from its text. (It should be mentioned here that it is in the
literary text that the etymological meaning of the word ‘text’ from the Latin ‘textum, texo’— to weave
– is completely motivated.)
A linguistic text, on the contrary, allows of substitution; one verbal sequence may have a sense
similar to that of another verbal sequence, consequently, one verbal sequence may stand for another,
e.g. the sentence: "He was one of the most inefficient liars I have ever known" when viewed just as a
linguistic entity allows of a number of substitutions, such as: "one could easily see when he told a lie",
or "he didn't know how to tell a lie", etc. When this sentence is part of a literary text its meaning
cannot be completely rendered in so many other synonymous words. Something of the meaning will be
left unconveyed. And this something is the implication the sentence acquires from the whole of the
supra-verbal layer. To understand what "an inefficient liar" means in the sentence given above as part
of a literary text we have to know the whole poetic context, in this case the poetic context of the novel
"The Quiet American" from which the sentence is taken.
The cohesion (сцепление) of the two layers, i. e. of the strictly verbal and the supra-verbal
constitutes what is known as the poetic structure of the literary text. There is nothing in the literary
work that is not expressed in its poetic structure. It is the whole of the poetic structure that conveys the
author's message. One element (or component) of the poetic structure is as important as any other, for
through them all the author’s message is conveyed. All the components of the poetic structure
compose a hierarchy, an organization of interdependent layers. The basic unit of the poetic structure is
the word. All the various layers of the structure, i.e. the syntactic, the semantic, the rhythmical, the
compositional, the stylistic are expressed in words.
The concept of unity and interdependence of elements in the poetic structure may be illustrated by
the following example. The simile "he watched me intently like a prize-pupil" when taken by itself is
nothing other than just a play on words, a word-image. But within a literary text (in this case — "The
Quiet American") it is a unit which along with others in the system of similes (and the latter in its turn
as a unit in the system of all tropes and figures of speech used in the novel) goes to depict the image of
Pyle. The image of Pyle in its turn, as one of the character-images together with all the other ones in
the novel, goes to convey the author's message.
Representation of the literary work in terms of a structure or a hierarchy of layers presupposes the
concept of macro- and micro-elements (components) and bears upon form-content relationship.
Macro- and micro-elements is a functional, not an absolute category. Within a literary work a
simile, for instance, is a micro-element in relation to a macro-element which may be the image of a
character, and the latter, in its turn, is a micro-element in relation to the macro-element which is the
literary work itself, understood as an image of reality.
The fact that macro-elements of a literary work are made out of micro-elements means in the final
analysis that micro-elements are form in relation to macro-elements which are content.
An isolated simile taken by itself as any other verbal entity is a unity of content and form. The same
simile within a literary work is either form or content depending upon the element in relation to which
it is taken. Thus, the simile he watched me intently like a prize-fighter is form in relation to the macroelement, the image of Pyle which this simile goes to build up. On the other hand, the quoted simile is
content in relation to the form, the elements which it is made up of: watched, intently, prize-fighter.
The following should be emphasized in connection with what has just been stated: an analysis in
which the idea of the literary work is considered separate from its verbal materialization is an
erroneous and harmful practice. It is harmful in that it leads the reader away from the appreciation of
the essence of verbal art. Also it indirectly inculcates in the reader a view that literature is an unneces-
sarily long and circumlocutious way of expressing an idea which could otherwise be expressed in a
much shorter and simpler manner.
4.2 Principles of Poetic Structure Cohesion
Each literary work is a unique instance of imaginative representation of reality. Imaginative
representation, however, has its own principles (known as aesthetic principles) which cohere all
elements of the literary text and render it possible for the latter to constitute a world complete in itself.
These principles are common to all literary works. We now proceed to discuss some of these
principles.
Principle of Incomplete Representation
Wholeness in art is different from wholeness in actual reality. An author in re-creating an object or
phenomenon of reality selects out of infinity of features pertaining to the object only those which are
most characteristic. In other words, a literary image represents features that are most characteristic of
an object, or which at least, seem such to the author. For instance, in the description of a farmhouse (J.
Steinbeck's "The Chrysanthemums") the following features are singled out: "It was a hard-swept
looking house, with hard-polished windows, and a clean mudmat on the front steps." The farm-house
had many other peculiarities, no doubt. But those selected very well convey the image of the place.
Moreover, they indirectly suggest the image of its owner, the vigorous, beauty-seeking Elisa. Thus, the
author, in depicting an image, makes a selection: he picks out part (or parts) which can stand for the
whole.
All images in a literary text, those of people, events, situations, landscapes and the like are
incompletely represented. At least two factors .seem to condition this. First, let us consider the
linguistic factor. Verbal representation of the whole image is a venture which cannot or should hardly
ever be endeavored. This would take up innumerable pages of writing in which the image itself would
invariably be dissolved, for there is a considerable disproportion between linguistic means of
representation and the reality which is to be represented.
The second, and the main, is the aesthetic factor. Literature, as we know, transmits aesthetic
information. To achieve this aim literature must first of all stir up the reader's interest. One way to do
this is to make the reader strain his perceptive abilities and fill in for himself those fragments of the
whole which have been gapped or, as we have termed it, incompletely represented, that is, represented
through a part. The part selected to fulfill such a representative function must, indeed, have the power
of stirring up the reader's imagination so as to make him visualize the whole. The trick of conveying
much through little is one of the greatest secrets of imaginative literature. An achieved harmony of the
whole and the part is a sign of a truly talented work.
The degree of incompleteness of representation depends upon the genre of the literary work as well
as upon the individual manner of the writer. The degree of incompleteness is greater in lyrical poems
and smaller in epic works. But even in large works of narrative prose the degree of incompleteness (or
gapping), is considerable.
The part selected to represent the whole is a poetic detail. The term “poetic detail" defies a rigorous
definition for as any other element of poetic structure it is a functional category. It emerges as a result
of correlation with other elements of the text and can be evaluated only against the background of all
of these. Take, for instance, the following extract from. Faulkner's story "That Evening Sun" in which
Nancy, the main character of the story, a Negro washer-woman, is first introduced: "Nancy would set
her bundle (of washing) on the top of her head, then upon the bundle in turn she would set the black
straw sailor hat which she wore winter and summer. She was tall, with a high, sad face sunken a little
where her teeth were missing. Sometimes we would go a part of the way down the lane and across the
pasture with her, to watch the balanced bundle and the hat that never bobbed nor wavered, even when
she walked down into the ditch and up the other side and stooped through the fence."
Nancy is described by a number .of features: the way she set and carried her bundle of washing, her
height, her face, and her missing teeth. But some of these features stand out more prominent than the
other: her "black straw sailor hat which she wore winter and summer" and "her missing teeth". These
are the details which suggest the image of Nancy. Not that the reader becomes conscious of their
suggestiveness at once. Their full impact may get home to him on recurrence or after he has read more
about Nancy and her life.
One way or another, in his appreciation of an image the reader will be guided by detail, for it is by
carefully selected details that the author depicts his image.
It would be true to say, that the more vivid the detail the greater is the impetus the reader's
imagination receives and, accordingly, the greater is his aesthetic pleasure.
There are details of landscapes, of events, etc. The central image of any literary work, that of a
character is manifold, so are the details that represent it. These may be the details of: action, speech,
physical portrait, ethical, political views, etc. Here is a detail of Babbitt's speech (S. Lewis, "Babbitt”)
Mr. Babbitt and his best friend Paul, greet each other over the telephone.
‘How's the old horse-thief?’
'All right, I guess. How're you, you poor shrimp?’
‘I'm first-rate, you second-hand hunk o’cheese."
The author then remarks "Reassured thus of their high fondness, Babbitt grunted..."
Another detail from the same novel gives the reader an idea of Babbitt's (the owner of a real-estate
firm) attitude to common workman. "He almost liked common people. He wanted them well paid and
able to afford high-rents though, naturally, they must not interfere with the reasonable profits of
stockholders."
A poetic detail may be some directly observed and directly expressed feature of an image. Thus, the
image of cold autumn ("In Another Country", by E. Hemingway) is conveyed in. such details of simple
and direct perceptions which may be described as verbal photography: "...small birds blew in the wind
and the wind turned their feathers."…"On one, of them (bridges) a woman sold roasted chestnuts. It
was warm, standing in front of her charcoal fire, and the chestnuts were warm afterward in your
pocket."
A detail of the depicted image, on the other hand, may be represented in an association with some
other phenomenon. In such a case it usually takes the form of a trope as in the following detail of the
winter-in-Salinas-valley description from J. Steinbeck's story "The Chrysanthemums": "(the fog) sat
like a lid on the mountains and made of a great valley a closed pot."
The nature of a truly poetic detail is such that it both typifies and individualizes the image.
Principle of Analogy and Contrast
Analogy and contrast are known to be universal principles of cognition. In the arts and especially in
literature analogy/contrast is a way of imaginative cognition. The author contra- and juxtaposes images
of real life and in that way reveals the good and the evil, the beautiful and the ugly, the just and the
unjust in life.
Analogy and contrast are the organizing axis of poetic structure. They permeate the whole text, all
its components, both macro- and micro-: the character and the event representation, the imagery, etc.
G. Green’s novel "The Quiet American" may very well serve as an illustration. The author's ethical
message that of the man's responsibility in the modern world is conveyed by a contrast of the two main
characters: Fowler and Pyle. The author depicts them as antipodes in everything: in their physical
appearances, in their spiritual and mental make-up, in the stand they take on all essential issues of life.
Pyle is young and quiet. With his "unused face, with his gangly legs and his crew-cut, his wide campus
gaze” he seemed, at first sight, "incapable of harm". He came to the East full of York Harding’s ideas
about the Third Force, eager to help them materialize.
Fowler, on the contrary, is an aging man, cynical and sophisticated. He prides himself on
detachment, on being uninvolved, on not belonging to this war. Step by step showing Pyle’s activity in
Vietnam the author makes the reader see that in the tragic world of that country it is the quiet, earnest
Pyle that turns out to be cold, cruel and menace-carrying. He is impregnably armored by York
Harding's teaching and his own ignorance. His innocence, the author says, is a kind of insanity.
The cynical Fowler, the man who had prided himself on not being involved, on the contrary, comes
to realize that he is responsible for the war "as though those wounds had been inflicted by him." Pyle
did not abandon his stand, York Harding and his teaching. Civilians killed in the street are just mere
war casualties for him. To Fowler their deaths cannot be "justified by any amount of killed soldiers".
Thus, it is through the antithesis of Pyle — Fowler and the spiritual and ethical worlds they
represent that the author, conveys his idea of what man's true responsibility is, of what man should do
in the world torn by enmity and conflict.
The principle of analogy and contrast may not be as explicit in some works as it is in the work we
have mentioned above, but it infallibly finds a manifestation in any literary work.
As will be shown below, analogy and contrast underlie quite a number of such elements of poetic
structure as tropes and figures of speech.
Principle of Recurrence
When we read a literary text our thought does not run in just one, onward, direction. Its movement
is both progressive and recursive: from the given item it goes on to the next with a return to what has
been previously stated. This peculiar movement of the thought is conditioned by the fact that the
literary text as we have shown above represents a cohesion of two layers the verbal and the supraverbal layer. The verbal is direct, linear, the supra-verbal is essentially recursive.
When we begin to read a book we do not yet perceive the complexity of the content contained in
the whole of it, though the text (considering that it is written in the language we know) is well
understood by us. The covered portion of the text is part of the literary work and such it gives us but a
rough approximation of the meaning of the whole work. This part, however, deepens our understanding of that portion of the text, which we proceed to read. And the newly read portion of the text
adds to our perception of the whole. In this recursive or spiral-like manner we gather the content of the
literary work as a whole.
Poetic structure of the literary text is so modeled that certain of its elements which have already
occurred in the text recur again at definite intervals. These recurrent elements may be a poetic detail,
an image, a phrase, a word.
The recurrence of an element may have several functions, i.e. be meaningful in a variety of ways.
One of these functions is that of organizing the subject matter, giving it a dynamic flow. Consider, for
instance, the following expository passage from E. Hemingway's "Old Man at the Bridge" and see how
the recurrent phrase "old man" organizes and frames it up: "An old man with steel-rimmed spectacles
and very dusty clothes sat by the side of the road. There was a pontoon bridge across the river and
carts, trucks, and men, women and children were crossing it. The mule-drawn carts staggered up the
steep bank from the bridge with soldiers helping push against the spokes of the wheels. The trucks
ground up and away heading out of it all and the peasants plodded along in the ankle deep dust. But
the old many sat there without moving. He was too tired to go any farther."
A recurrent element may represent the leit-motif of the literary work, expressing the author's,
message as, for instance, in "The Basement Room" by G. Green. The story tells about a seven-year-old
boy whose parents have gone on a fortnight's vacation leaving him in charge of the butler, Baines, and
his wife, Mrs. Baines. The boy descends into the basement room, the dwelling-place of the Baines’ and
... finds himself involved in their life, with its conflicts, its secret and its bitterness. Each of them, in
turn, entrusts his/her secret to the boy and expects him to keep it. The boy is entirely on the side of the
butler, he hates and abhors the butler's wife. But when it happens that the butler unintentionally causes
the death of his wife, the boy betrays him to the police, for he feels it unbearable to keep the secret, to
have the responsibility Baines has laid upon him.
The following two sets of phrases run parallel to each other at certain intervals through the whole
of the story. The first set is: "Philip began to live"; "this is life", "this was life"; "it was life he was in
the middle of; “Philip extracted himself from life"; "a retreat from life". And the second set: “And
suddenly he felt responsible for Baines"; "Again Phillip felt responsibility"; "He would have nothing to
do with their secrets, the responsibilities they were determined to lay on him"; "he surrendered
responsibility once and for all." These two recurrent sets of phrases run as the leit-motif of the story:
living means having responsibilities, asserts the author; when one surrenders' responsibilities one
retreats from life.
It may be mentioned here in passing that it is upon the recurrent elements (phonetic, syntactic,
lexical, etc.) and their peculiar distribution within the poetic structure that the rhythm of the text
largely depends, for rhythm is repetition with variation.
Quite a number of figures of speech are based upon the principle of recurrence.
4.3 Tropes and Figures of Speech
Words and word-groups that compose a literary text are drawn from no other source than that of the
general language. But when words and word-groups of the general language occur in a literary text
they are treated as elements of poetic speech, for in such a text they acquire a meaningfulness
conditioned by the whole poetic content of the literary text.
Among word-sequences that constitute a literary text there occur, however, such, which seem to
be specifically patterned — semantically, lexically, syntactically, phonetically. These are the so-called
tropes and figures of speech. Their patterned nature makes them different from all other wordsequences of the literary text and more or less easily recognizable units of poetic speech.
The principle manifested in tropes is that of analogy. Some similar feature in otherwise dissimilar
things is discovered and the discovered similarity suggests an image, of that which is described. Units
of poetic speech that belong to tropes are: simile, metaphor, metonymy and metaphoric / metonymic
epithet. The other collective term for them is imagery.
Figures of speech are parallel constructions, framing, anaphora, epiphora, alliteration, antithesis,
aposiopesis and others. The organizing axes in these are recurrence, analogy/contrast, and incomplete
representation.
In a literary text units of poetic speech rarely represent a pure case of one or the other of the above
mentioned groups, the bulk are of a mixed type. It may be due to this fact that the terms "imagery
(tropes)" and "figures of speech" are sometimes indiscriminately used by scholars of style.
Types of Tropes
Simile is the most rudimentary form of trope. It can be defined as a device based upon an analogy
between two things, which are discovered to possess some feature in common otherwise being entirely
dissimilar. For instance, G. Greene's simile "darkness when once it fell, fell like a stone" is based on
the discovered similarity between “darkness” and "stone" the latter suggesting suddenness, quickness
and danger of the fallen darkness. Some other examples are: (Lady Henry) "looking like a bird of
paradise that had been out all night in the rain (flitted out of the room)." (0. Wilde) "Makes marriage
vows as false as Dicer’s oaths." (W. Shakespeare)
The formal elements of a simile are: 1) a pair of objects (e. g. darkness + stone; Lady Henry + a bird
of paradise; marriage vows + dicer's oaths); 2) a connective (like, as, as if, as though, such as etc.).
Not only conjunctions and adverbs but notional words (nouns, verbs, prepositional phrases) as well as
affixes (suffixes — -wise, -like) and comma — the substitute of a conjunction — can have the function
of a connective in a simile; e. g. "She seemed nothing, more than a doll." (A. Huxley) "He resembled a
professor in a five-elm college." (S. Lewis)"... clouds of tawny dust ... flung themselves table-clothwise among the tops of parched trees." (R. Kipling) "Mr. Nab’s back, through the front window, was
stonily impressive, the back of a statue." (A. Huxley) "... with ape-like fury, he was trampling his
victim under foot." (R. Stevenson)
All the above-mentioned formal elements make the simile an easily recognizable unit of poetic
speech.
Metaphor, a most widely used trope, is also based upon analogy, upon a traceable similarity. But in
the metaphor, contrary to the simile, there is no formal element to indicate comparison. The difference,
though, is not merely structural. The absence of a formal indication of comparison in the metaphor
makes the analogy it is based on more subtle to perceive. Thus, in the simile "The three with the
medals were like hunting-hawks." (E. Hemingway) the element "like" lays bare the analogy between
"those three with medals" and "hunting-hawks". One, who knows what a hunting-hawk is, can easily
imagine what those three were: they were people trained to kill; killing was their business. In the
metaphor "I was not a hawk" (E. Hemingway) due to the absence of "like" or any other formal element
of comparison the two objects "I" and "hawk" seem to merge, the scope of analogy widens.
This difference between simile and metaphor leads some scholars to the belief that metaphor is more
emotional and consequently more expressive, that it is restricted to more literary style. The simile is
believed to be heavier and more logical and therefore better fitted to lend precision to the expressed
thought due to which it can be used in any type of style even in the most prosaic. This assertion cannot
be readily accepted because both poetical similes and poetical metaphors are individual creations, and
their greater or lesser expressiveness depends entirely upon the freshness and novelty of the discovered
association. Thus, with G. Greene, for instance, it is often a simile and not a metaphor that is based on
a more sudden analogy and is, consequently, more expressive: 1) "Darkness when once it fell, fell like
a stone. Then my head came over the earth floor and nobody shot at me and fear seeped away." 2)
"She frightened him like an unlucky number. He wasn't safe in the night nursery: their passions had
flooded it. "3) "Like a small blunt icicle in her white mackintosh she stood in the doorway. There she
was, sniffing round the area."
In purely linguistic terms the metaphor may be defined as a deviation from conventional
collocation. E. g. "The last colors of sunset ... were dripping over the edge of the flat world." (G.
Greene) The verb "drip" usually goes with such nouns as "water", "lard", "fat", in fact, with any name
of liquid. All such nouns represent one lexico-semantic class. The noun "sun" does not belong to this
class; its collocation with the verb "drip" is thus a deviation from the conventional. Consider other
examples: "I saw him coming out of the anaesthetic of her charm." (J. Thurber) "Gusts of wind
whispering here and there." (J. Keats) "His two million dollars were a little nest egg for him." (Don
Marquis) "Her eyes were two profound and menacing gun-barrels." (A. Huxley)
A distinction is usually made between poetic metaphors and lexical (dead, trite) metaphors.
Poetic metaphor is based upon a discovery of some new, fresh and striking analogy between two
things. This is a discovery made by an individual, that is to say, a poetic metaphor is always an
individual creation.
Lexical metaphor, on the contrary, is a commonly reproduced lexical unit. It is called dead or trite
because it docs nut call forth any vivid associations, its [unction is rather that of an intensifier. E. g.
Time flies. (Time passes very quickly.) He was flooded with happiness. (He was very happy.) As a
rule, such a metaphor is an integral part of the word's semantic structure, constituting one of its
figurative meanings, e.g. a puppy— a young dog (literal meaning); a vain, ill-bred young man
(figurative meaning).
A distinction is also made between a simple or elementary metaphor and an extended or prolonged
(sustained) metaphor. The metaphor is simple when it consists of just one word, or a word-group. A
simple metaphor may be expressed by a noun or a noun-phrase: "anaesthetic of her charm"; by a verb:
time flies; an adjective or adverb, in the latter case it is called a metaphoric epithet. The metaphor is
prolonged or extended when one word used in a transferred sense calls forth transference of meaning
in the whole sequence of words related to it, e.g. "...and I was not a hawk, although I might seem a
hawk to those who had never hunted..." (E. Hemingway)
Personification, a kind of metaphor, is a device which endows a thing or a phenomenon with
features peculiar of a human being: "At that time my virtue slumbered." (R. Stevenson) "Vice
triumphant holds her sovereign sway." (G. Byron) "My impatience has shown its heels to my
politeness." (R. Stevenson)
Units of poetic speech called metonymy (with synecdoche and metonymic antonomasia as its
variants) are also based upon analogy. But in them, contrary to the simile and the metaphor, there is an
objectively existing relationship between the object named and the object implied.
Metonymic relations are varied in character. The name of an instrument may stand for the name of
the action this instrument produces or is associated with, e. g. "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me
your ears." (W. Shakespeare) or the name of a symbol used instead of that which this symbol denotes,
as in: "(England)... sucked the blood of other countries, destroyed the brains and hearts of Irishmen,
Hindus, Egyptians, Boers and Burmese." (J. Galsworthy), where the words "blood", "brains", "heart"
stand for the economic, intellectual and spiritual life of the people referred to. That what the man
possesses may be used for the man himself, f. g. "Director Rippleton had also married money." (S."
Lewis), just as a quality of a thing may stand for the, thing itself, e. g. "Then she turned round and took
a long mournful look at grandma's blackness and at Fenella's black coat." (K. Mansfield)
Synecdoche is based on a specific kind of metonymic relationship, which may be considered as
quantitative. This is when a part stands for the whole or when the whole, stands for a part, an
individual for a whole class, or a whole class for an individual, etc. E. g. "The Goth, the ChristianTime-War-Flood and Fire, have dealt upon the seven-hilled City's pride." (G. Byron)
Antonomasia is the use of a proper name for a common one. Antonomasia may be metaphoric i. e.
based upon a similarity between two things: "The Giaconda smile". (A. Huxley) It is metonymic when
the name of a person stands, for instance, for the thing he has created, as in: "Where one man would
treasure a single Degas, Renoir, Cezanne, Mr. Ferraro bought wholesale." (G. Greene)
The appeal to imagination in a metonymy (synecdoche and metonymic antonomasia) is believed to
be much weaker than that contained in a metaphor or a simile. Nevertheless, the former, too, is a
powerful means of poetic expression. Its force lies in the intense conciseness with which it can pick
out one particular aspect of a complex thing (or idea) making the thing itself easier to comprehend: e.g.
He has married money. He is the Napoleon of crime, etc.
Epithet is an attributive characterization of a person, thing or phenomenon. It is, as a rule, simple
in form. In the majority of cases it consists of one word: adjective or adverb, modifying respectively
nouns or verbs, e. g. "The glow of an angry sunset." (Ch. Dickens) "Carrying himself straight and
soldierly." (E. Hemingway) Sometimes epithets may be expressed by nouns, mostly in of-phrases:
"They had the spirit of modesty." (J. Steinbeck) or compounds — equivalents of whole phrases: "Brian
feeling a quiet I-told-you-so satisfaction at the unalterable laws." (A. Sillitoe)
Epithets on the whole show purely individual emotional attitude of the speaker towards the object
spoken of. It does not define a property of the object spoken of; it describes the object as it appears to
the speaker.
An epithet may be based on an analogy when certain properties of one class of things are reflected
upon a thing of another class. This is a metaphoric epithet, e.g. "The submarine laughter was swelling,
rising, ready to break the surface of silence." (A. Huxley) or: "The dawn with silver-sandaled feet crept
like a frightened girl." (0. Wilde)
But in most cases epithets are not based on analogy — they just merely denote the speaker's attitude
to what is being spoken about: "To fulfill this condition was hopelessly out of my power." (B. Shaw)
"The new and very serious and Hyper-educated generation." (J. Joice)
There are also the so-called conventional (standing) epithets, a sort of literary cliché. They mostly
occur in folklore or in the works of individual writers based on or imitating folklore: my true love,
merry old England, merry month of May, wide world, etc.
Periphrasis is a unit of poetic speech which both names and describes. We speak of a periphrasis
when we have the name of a person or a thing substituted by a descriptive phrase, e.g. the better (fair)
sex — women, man in the street—an ordinary person, etc. It is when a periphrasis is represented by a
metonymy or a metaphor that we refer it to the class of tropes: e.g. "His studio is probably full of the
mute evidences of his failure." (M. Joseph), where "mute evidences of his failure" stands for
"paintings". The same thing, i. e. "paintings" is described as "his unappreciated efforts". Another
example: ”For one thing”, answered Richard rankling a little, it (money) won't buy one into the
exclusive circles of society. 'Oho! Won’t it?' thundered the champion of the root of evil. ’You tell me
where your exclusive circles would be if the first Astor hadn't had the money to pay for his steerage
passage over?' (0. Henry), where the "root of evil" is a metaphoric substitute for the word "money".
A periphrasis is euphemistic when it stands as a substitute for a concept or thing which the author
finds too unpleasant or is too reticent to name directly. Here is how E. Hemingway speaks of death in
his "The Snows of Kilimanjaro": "Since the gangrene started in his right leg he had no pain and with
the pain the horror had gone ... For this, that now was coming, he had very little curiosity. For years it
obsessed him; but now it meant nothing in itself." Instead of saying that Nick killed a troublesome
mosquito with a lighted match E. Hemingway says: "The mosquito made a satisfactory hiss in the
flame."
Periphrases, as all the other tropes, can be divided into original creations of individual authors and
trite ones many of which have become part of the general lexicon: the better sex; the seven-hilled city
(Rome); organs of vision (eyes); {the language of Racine (the French language).
Allusion is a reference to specific places, persons, literary characters or historical events that, by
some association, have come to stand for a certain thing or an idea. The frequently resorted to sources
are mythology and the Bible, e. g. "We are met here as the guests of — what shall I call them? — the
Three Graces of the Dublin musical world. The table burst into applause and laughter at this allusion."
(J. Joyce) The full impact of an allusion, the perception of the idea it is employed to suggest comes to
that reader who is aware of the original sense of the word, phrase, place or character alluded to. Thus,
for instance, in the quoted example the cause of applause and laughter at the speaker's allusion to "the
Three Graces of the Dublin musical world" who in this case are three elderly spinsters is perceived by
him who knows that the three Graces in Roman mythology where goddesses of beauty, joy and female
charm. Allusions may function within the literary text as metaphoric epithets, metaphors proper,
similes, periphrases. Quotations embedded in the text are a type of allusion, e. g. "The conversation
which eventually followed on this topic was of such stuff as dreams are made of." (Th. Dreiser); "such
stuff as dreams are made of" is a line from W. Shakespeare's "The Tempest" (Act IV, sc. I): “We are
such stuff as dreams are made of…”
The pleasure of reading increases when we recognize such stray phrases and recall their full
meaning in their original context.
It should be emphasized that a trope is appreciated as poetic not for the inherent quality of the
words that make it up but rather for how vividly it suggests an image. As for the words used in a trope
they may be of the commonest, the plainest sort. Take, for instance, the following extended metaphor
from G. Meredith's novel "The Egoist": "The Egoist is the Son of himself. He is likewise the Father.
And the son loves the father and the father the son: they reciprocate affection through the closest of
ties". A very common "father" and "son" create a sudden and strikingly vivid metaphor when used as
characteristics of the Egoist.
Types of Figures of Speech
Quite a number of figures of speech are based upon the principle of recurrence. Recurrent may be
elements of different linguistic layers: lexical, syntactic, morphological, and phonetic. Some figures of
speech, as will be shown below, emerge as a result of a simultaneous interaction of several principles
of poetic expression, i. e. the principle of contrast +recurrence; recurrence + analogy; recurrence + incomplete representation, etc.
Parallelism m as a figure of speech is based upon a recurrence of syntactically identical sequences
which lexically are completely or partially different. E.g. "She was a good servant, she walked softly,
she was a determined woman, and she walked precisely." (G. Greene) "They were all three from
Milan, and one of them was to be a lawyer, and one was to be a painter, and one had intended to be
a soldier..." (E. Hemingway) Parallelism strongly affects the rhythmical organization of an utterance
and gives it a special emphasis.
Parallelism should not be mixed up with repetition. As the word "repetition" itself suggests, this
unit of poetic speech is based upon a repeated occurrence of one and the same word or word-group. E.
g. "You cannot, sir, take from me anything. I will more willingly part with all except my life, except
my life, except my life." (W. Shakespeare) "1 wouldn't mind him if he wasn't so conceited and didn't
bore me, and bore me, and bore me." (E. Hemingway)
Depending upon the position a repeated unit occupies in the utterance there are distinguished four
types of repetition.
1) Anaphora — repetition of the first word or word-group m several successive sentences,
clauses or phrases: e.g. "Justice waited behind a wooden counter in a high stool; it wore a heavy
moustache; it was kindly and had six children...; it wasn't really interested in Philip, but it pretended to
be, it wrote the address down and sent a constable to fetch a glass of milk." (G. Green)
2) Epiphora — repetition of the final word or word-group: e.g. "I wake up and I'm alone, and I
walk; round Warley and I'm alone, and I talk with people and I’m alone." (J. Braine)
3) Anadiplosis (catch repetition) —repetition at the beginning of the ensuing phrase, clause or
sentence of a word or a word-group that has occurred in the initial, the middle or the final position of
the preceding word-sequence: e.g.”But Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable
man. (W. Shakespeare)
4) Framing, or ring .repetition — repetition of the same unit at the beginning and at the end of
the same sentence, stanza, or paragraph:
How beautiful is the rain
After the dust and heat,
In the broad and fiery street
In the narrow lane
How beautiful is the rain. (H. W. Longfellow)
Polysyndeton is an insistent repetition of a connective between words, phrases or clauses in an
utterance, e. g. " They were all three from Milan and one of them was to be a lawyer, and one was to
be a painter, and one had intended to be a soldier, and after we were finished with the machines,
sometimes we walked back together to the Cafe Cova." (E. Hemingway)
Asyndeton, on the contrary, is a deliberate avoidance of connectives, e. g. "He never tired of their
(pictures presence, they represented a substantial saving in death duties." (Q. Greene) Both these
devices, though each other's opposites, are equal in expressiveness. The omission of a connective as
well as its supra-average occurrence may be suggestive in a variety of ways. Thus, the repeated "and"
in the above quoted sentence from E. Hemingway's story "In Another Country" suggests and
emphasizes the fact that the fates of the three men from Milan were equally tragic: none of them had
turned out to be what they had intended to be, while the omission of the connective "for", or "because"
in the example from G. Greene's story "Special Duties" is a way of emphasizing the fact that it was the
material benefit that he (Mr. Ferraro) valued most in the pictures.
Both these devices are widely used in contemporary narrative prose. In the works of some writers
their occurrences are quite prominent, as, for instance, in the works of E. Hemingway. In fact, E.
Hemingway is reputed as master of endowing these devices with exceptionally suggestive overtones.
Climax (gradation) is another unit of poetic speech based on the recurrence of a certain syntactic
pattern. In each recurrent sequence the lexical unit is either emotionally stronger or logically more
important. E. g. "Walls — palaces—half-cities, have been reared. (G. Byron) "Janet Spence's parlourmaid was ... ugly on purpose ... malignantly, criminally ugly." (A. Huxley)
Sometimes lexical units, when merely enumerated, cannot be considered as more emotional or less
emotional, more important or less important, but as soon as they are arranged in a certain sequence
they acquire a graded quality as in: "He lived—he breathed—be moved—he felt." (G. Byron) "She
rose — she sprung — she clung to his "embrace." (G.Byron) A lexical unit may seem to be emotionally stronger by the mere fact that it is placed last in a sequence of syntactically identical units, e. g.
"The thoughts went rioting through his brain, proud, joyful, lender, valorous. " (J. Joyce) "Just then the
hyena stopped whimpering in the night and started to make a strange, human, almost crying sound."
(E. Hemingway) A very subtle effect is produced by a gradation which is based on the recurrence of
the same ' lexical morpheme represented by different grammar classes, e. g. "He was sleepy. He felt
sleep coming. He curled up under the blanket and went to sleep." (E. Hemingway)
Anticlimax (bathos) is the reverse of climax. In this figure of speech emotion or logical importance
accumulates only to be unexpectedly broken and brought down. The sudden reversal usually brings
forth a humorous or ironic effect, as in the following: "She felt that she did not really know these
people, that she would never know them; she wanted to go on seeing them, being with them, and living
with rapture in their workaday world. But she did not do this." (A. Coppard)
Suspense (retardation) is a deliberate delay in the completion of the expressed thought. What has
been delayed is the loading task of the utterance and the reader awaits the completion of the utterance
with an ever-increasing tension. Suspense is achieved by a repeated occurrence of phrases or clauses
expressing condition, supposition, time, and the like, all of which hold back the conclusion of the
utterance. A classical example of a skilful use of suspense is R. Kipling's famous poem "If". The title
itself suggests suspense. The poem consists of eight stanzas and it is only in the last two lines of the
last, eighth stanza, that the sentence and the thought are completed
Sometimes the conclusion of the suspended utterance goes contrary to the aroused expectations, a
device often practiced for humorous effects, as in: "The little boy, whose heart was too full for
utterance, chewing a piece of licorice stick he had bought with a cent stolen from his good and pious
aunt, with sobs plainly audible and with great globules of water running down his cheeks, glided
silently down the marble steps of the bank." (M. Twain)
Zeugma is a figure of speech which consists of one main element and a number of adjuncts. The
adjuncts represent semantically different word-classes thus differing in the type and degree of cohesion
with the main element. E. g. "He had a good taste for wine and whiskey and an emergency bell in his
bedroom." (G. Greene), where the verb" "had" simultaneously governs such two unrelated sequences
as "a good taste for", and "an emergency bell".
The contrast between the syntactic identity of adjuncts and their semantic incompatibility is a means
of creating different connotative effects (humorous, ironic, etc.): e.g. "Either you or your head must be
off." (L. Carroll)
The figures of speech discussed below are based on contrast or, in some cases contrast + recurrence
as the main principle of their poetic arrangement and expression.
Antithesis is a phrase, a sentence or a group of such in which a thing (or a concept) is measured
against, or contrasted to its opposite: e.g.. "Too brief for our passion, too long for our peace." (G.
Byron) "'If he hadn't gone to school, he'd met the scholars; if he hadn't gone into the house, he had
knocked at the door." (S. O'Casey) "Their wrath how deadly! but their friendship sure." (G. Byron)
As may be seen from the examples given above antithesis emerges as a result of a contraposition of
two or more words, the contra- osed words being either antonym, as in: Brief — long or contrastive in
some of their meaning-components as in: wrath — friendship. Sometimes words generally not
contrastive in meaning acquire this quality due to their contraposition as, for instance, the words gonemet.
0xymoron is a kind of antithesis in that it is also based upon a contrast between two words. But
contrary to the antithesis where contrastive words are contraposed (in parallel constructions), in the
oxymoron contrastive words may be juxtaposed as modifier and modified, e. g. "The enchanting tale,
the tale of pleasing woe." (J. Keats) "Oh, the sweetness of the pain." (J. Keats) "Parting is such sweet
sorrow." (W. Shakespeare) "She was filled with a glad terror." (A. Myrer) "The wordy silence troubled
her." (0. Wilde)
The juxtaposition of two contrastive words is not in essence illogical for with the help of it the
speaker emphasizes the complex nature of the thing spoken about. In the majority of cases the modifier
conveys the author's or the character's personal attitude towards what is modified, e. g. sweet sorrow;
glad terror.
In an original oxymoron, as could be seen in the above given examples, the denotative meaning
correlates with the connotative meaning and the latter does not contradict but in fact helps to grasp the
denotation more readily. Frequently repeated oxymorons become trite and lexicalized. Some of them
are nothing other than intensifiers: awfully nice, mighty small, fright fully happy. Original oxymorons
do not often occur in texts but their scarcity does not speak of their inexpressiveness. In fact, as already
stated, they help to reveal the inner contradictions that underlie objective phenomena; they are
considered to be a special form of paradox.
Paradox is also based on contrast, being a statement contradictory to what is accepted as a selfevident or proverbial truth, e.g. "I think that life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about
it." (0. Wilde) "My experience is that as soon as people are old enough to know better, they don't
know anything at all." (0.Wilde) "I never like giving information to the police. It saves them trouble."
(G. Greene) "Wine costs money, blood costs nothing." (B. Shaw)
The appeal of a paradox lies in the fact that, however contradictory it may seem to be to the
accepted maxim, it contains, nevertheless, a certain grain of truth, which makes it an excellent vehicle
of satire.
Pun (paronomasia, a play on words) is a figure of speech emerging as an effect created by words
similar or identical in their sound form and contrastive or incompatible in meaning.
The sound form played upon may be either a polysemantic word, as in: "Her nose was sharp, but not
so sharp as her voice or the suspiciousness with which she faced Martin." (S. Lewis) or complete/
partial homonyms, as in: "The Importance of Being Earnest" (0. Wilde).
The figures of speech called understatement, litotes, overstatement are also based on contrast: the
contrast is between the real and the expressed values of the object.
Understatement is an expression of an idea in an excessively restrained language, e.g. "He knows a
thing or two"; "Mr. Ferraro thought at first that it was the warmth of the day that had caused her to be
so inefficiently clothed ..." (G. Greene)
Litotes, a specific form of understatement, consists in the use of a negative for the contrary, as in:
"He had not been unhappy all day." (E. Hemingway) "The figures of these men and women straggled
past the flower-bed with a curiously irregular movement not unlike that of the white and blue
butterflies." (V. Woolf) "God has made man in his image, and it was not unreasonable for Mr. Ferraro
to return the compliment ..." (G. Greene)
Connotative effects produced by litotes as well as by understatements are varied. It may be a
characteristic instance of an author's generally restrained tone of writing as is the case with E.
Hemingway, or a way of rendering subtle irony as could be seen in the quoted examples from G.
Greene's story, etc.
Overstatement (hyperbole) as the word itself suggests is an expression of an idea in an exceedingly
exaggerate language, e. g. "That was fiercely annoying." (A. Coppard) "Their flat was a fourthfloor
one and there was — O, fifteen thousand stairs!" (A. Coppard) "I'd cross the world to find you a pin."
(A. Coppard)
Whereas various forms of litotes and understatement are an expression of a restrained, noncommittal or subtly ironic tone of writing, supra-average cases of overstatement, on the contrary, are
characteristic of an obviously emotional, if not altogether impassioned, manner of representation.
Aposiopesis, a sudden intentional break in the narration or dialogue, is a figure of speech based
upon the aesthetic principle of incomplete representation. What is not finished is implied: the sense of
the unexpressed is driven inside and the reader is expected to find it out for himself, the context of the
situation being his guide. The authors who refrain from being too outspoken often resort to this device.
Take, for instance, K. Mansfield's story "The Voyage" where aposiopesis is prominent among other
units of poetic speech. A little girl, Fenella, leaves her home for a stay at her grandmother's. The place
is somewhere across the Straits, so Fenella and her grandmother go there aboard a ship ... Something
untoward has precipitated the visit, something tragic has happened in Fenella's family. This is
suggested by a whole series of details such as the sad preoccupation of the girl's father who came to
see them off, the fact that he wouldn't look at the girl when she whispered anxiously "How long am I
going to stay?"; the grand-mother's words "God bless you, my own brave son!" and at last an
aposiopesis: "I hope — began the stewardess. Then she turned round and looked a long mournful look
at Grandma's blackness and at Fenella's black coat and skirt, black blouse, and hat with a crape rose."
Fenella slips into her berth and finds it hard to turn down those stiff sheets: "You simply had to tear
your way in," And again an aposiopesis: "If everything had been different, Fenella might have got the
giggles ..."
An attentive reader perceives that these aposiopesises along with other hints suggest somebody's
death: somebody has died and is not to be spoken of openly in the girl's presence. The surmise
becomes a certainty when the stewardess says: "Poor little motherless mite."
Aposiopeses are numerous in the works of J. Galsworthy, E. Hemingway, G. Green and others.
The implications are rich and varied, e. g. "I’m sorry, Thomas. By the way, my name is Alden, if you
care..."I'd rather stick to Pyle, I said. I think of you as Pyle." (G. Greene) or: "If you hadn't left your
own people, your goddamned Old West-berry, Saragota, Palm Beach people to take me on …" (E.
Hemingway). The graphic indication of an aposiopesis is, as a rule, a dash or dots.
Ellipsis is an intentional omission from an utterance of one or more words, e. g. "If teenage babysitters typical, there's hope yet." "Then the electric lights came on, and it was pleasant along the streets
looking in the windows." (E. Hemingway)
The difference between ellipsis and aposiopesis lies in the fact that whereas in the former the
omitted words make the utterance only grammatically incomplete the meaning of the omitted words
being easy to surmise from the utterance itself, e. g. Been home? instead of: Have you been home?;
Hungry? instead of: Are you hungry?; in the latter it is the context of the situation alone that helps
surmise the meaning of the unuttered words, while grammatically an aposiopesis may or may not be
complete, e. g. "If everything had been different, Fenella might have got the giggles ..." is a
grammatically complete utterance; but: "By the way, my name is Alden, if you'd care ..." is a
grammatically incomplete utterance.
To better illustrate the idea of the patterned nature of tropes and figures of speech, we have always
proceeded from the principle (be it analogy, contrast, recurrence, or incomplete representation) that
stands basic in the unit. But, as it follows from the definitions and illustrations given above, more than
one principle manifests itself, as a rule, in each unit of poetic speech. Thus, in an antithesis it is not
only the principle of contrast but that of recurrence as well: recurrent may be either syntactic elements
(parallelism) or phonetic (alliteration) or both, e. g. "Some looked perplexed and others looked
profound." (G. Byron) "Youth is lovely, age is lonely." (H. W. Longfellow)
In a pun there may be present analogy as well as contrast: the analogy of sound and the contrast of
meaning, e. g. "I am a mender of bad soles." (W. Shakespeare)— 1) the moral part of man's nature
(soul); 2) the bottom of a book, shoe, and slipper (sole); or: "Is confidence based on a rate of
exchange? We used to speak of sterling qualities. Have we got to talk now about a dollar love?" (G.
Greene) Sterling: 1) English money; 2) genuine.
This being the underlying factor in most of the units of poetic speech, we do not use the term
"mixed" each time we have such a unit. The term "mixed" should be used when a trope or a figure of
speech involves other units of poetic speech which happen to be its constituents. For instance, a case of
pun may involve a metaphor, e.g. "I will speak daggers to her, but use none."; or an epithet, e.g. "Her
nose was sharp, but not so sharp as her voice or the suspiciousness with which she faced Martin."; a
paradox may involve an antithesis, e.g. "Wine costs money, blood costs nothing." or a repetition +
antithesis, e. g. "I always find out that one's most glaring fault is one's most important virtue.", etc. It is
always essential to see the unit that stands as the main (a macro-unit) in relation to its constituent parts
(micro-units).
The tropes and the greater part of the figures of speech we have considered above are the more
prominent units of poetic speech. Each of them carries enormous expressive potentiality which alone
accounts for the extensive use these units have in literary texts.
4. ПРАКТИЧЕСКИЕ ЗАДАНИЯ ДЛЯ СТИЛИСТИЧЕСКОГО АНАЛИЗА
Выполните комплексный лингвистический и стилистический анализ следующих
литературных произведений
Adolescence by Bertrand Russell
The Tigress and her Mate by James Thurber
On Marriage by G.Mikes
The Law by Langston Hughes
About Arguments by G.Mikes
The Age of Science and Technology by John Silver
How to be the Center of the Universe by G.Mikes
Mediterranean Islands, July by A.Bennet
Football Girl by Katherine Brusk
Mabel by S.Maugham
Success Story by J.G.Cozzens
The Story of Hermione by C.Hare
Mortmain by Graham Green
For Esme – With Love and Squalor by J.D.Salinger
The Killers by E. Hemingway
First Night by Moiro Burgess
Reference
Л.С.Головчинская. Совершенствуйте свой английский. В 5 кн.: Книга 4 – М: ООО
Издательство «Астрель», ООО «Издательство Аст», 2000
Примерная схема стилистического анализа
Scheme of comprehensive analysis of a short story
1. The theme, the main idea
2. Plot structure. Arrangement of the components of plot structure
3. The role of the setting
4. Plot structure techniques
5. The main characters, means of their characterization
6. Narrative method. Types of narration
7. The tonal system. The author’s attitude
8. Expressive means and stylistic devices
9. The title and its implication. The message
10. Your personal response to the story
Scheme of the analysis of a chapter from a novel
1. The title and its implication
2. The subject matter of the chapter
3. The setting and the main events
4. Characters and their relationships
5. Means of characterization
6. Narrative types
7. Expressive means and stylistic devices
8. The author’s attitude, tone, mood, atmosphere
Phrases for stylistic analysis
1. Types of Narration
The narration is done in the first person.
It conveys the author’s ironic attitude.
Dwelling on the message conveyed…
To interpret the title…
In this connection…
The meaning does not lie on the surface.
The implication contained in …
The background against which it is shown…
The underlying idea of the story is…
The story is narrated as seen by…
2. Represented Speech
Here we deal with the change of the type of narration from the author’s narrative to represented inner
speech of the character.
The transition tells on the vocabulary which becomes more colloquial and more emotional, on the
syntax, on the punctuation, morphology.
The shift is smooth, imperceptible
Repetition creates continuity and cohesion.
The two voices (author’s and character’s) merge…
It is a description into which the character’s voice is gradually introduced first through … (graphically,
syntactically).
… marks the shift from…
The author presents the events from the point of view of one of the characters.
The author speaks in his own voice.
The syntactical structure of the utterance does not change.
Abrupt changes from short sentences to long ones, and then back again.
Represented speech is a powerful stylistic device used to reveal the character’s psychology or
temporary mental state.
3. Speech Characteristics
A fair characteristic of the speaker
Substandard words
Colloquial words
Irregularities of grammar, pronunciation (graphons), syntax
Abundance of set phrases
All this show the low educational and cultural level of the speaker.
The graphic indication of …
It takes an effort on the part of the reader to see the double semantics of the word but all the greater is
his enjoyment when the applied meaning gradually opens up to him.
The manner of speaking of the character is revealed ….
… manifests itself …
4. The Author’s Attitude
The author remains seemingly detached and non-committal.
The author avoids straight evaluations, often resorts to periphrasis and understatement.
The tone of the narration is charged with tension and emotion.
There are subtle implications in …
It conveys the author’s ironic attitude.
5. Stylistic Devices
The paragraph is dominated by sustained metaphor.
It helps to convey the effect of …
The paragraph abounds in epithets.
The syntax of … shows several groups of parallel constructions
… is emphasized by various types of repetition.
All the parallelisms and repetitions create a definitely perceived rhythm of the passage.
Abounds in
The message conveyed by the antithesis
The effect of the figure of speech Observe the tropes
Trite metaphors serve as emotional intensifiers of …
Vividly portraying
Emotional quality
The character of epithets
It has more emphatic meaning
The conjunction and begins a paragraph which is not a common way of beginning a sentence and a
paragraph (…is logically connected with the previous part, the development of the same thought)
Reiteration lends a peculiar emotional force or emphasis to what is being said
It may also make the utterance more rhythmical
To lay greater emphasis
To convey emotions
To secure the desired effect
A simile extends into a metaphor
To achieve the effect
The choice of… is accounted for
The SD of litotes makes the sentence sound non-categorical.
The purpose of this stylistic device is…
The stylistic device produces the effect of …
5. ОРГАНИЗАЦИЯ САМОСТОЯТЕЛЬНОЙ РАБОТЫ СТУДЕНТОВ
5.1 Содержание самостоятельной работы
Виды учебной деятельности
1. Подготовка к лекционным и практическим занятиям
2. Независимый
комплексный
лингвистический
стилистический анализ литературных произведений
3. Подготовка учебных проектов
4. Ответы на вопросы форумов
Итого:
Количество
часов
26
и 20
20
10
76
5.2 Список художественных произведений для самостоятельного чтения и анализа
1. F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby. – Penguin Popular Classics, 2004
2. W.S.Maugham. The Moon and Sixpence. – М: Издательство «Менеджер», 2004
5.3 Примерное содержание дискуссионных форумов
Форум 1
1. Give examples to illustrate the fact that certain functional styles, though independently
existing, stand rather close to one another in the general system of the language.
2. What linguistic means contribute to creating imagery in fiction style?
3. What types of connotational meanings do you know? Can they sometimes overlap? Give
examples.
4. What is understood by stylistic reference of a word?
5. In what types of narration can speech characteristics of a personage be found?
6. What does the shift from the author’s narrative to represented speech in an artistic text tell on?
Consider both vocabulary and syntax.
Форум 2
1. What is the difference between a linguistic text and the text of a literary work?
2. In what way can the principle of incomplete representation be manifested in a literary work?
3. Give an example of a literary work you have read in which the principle of analogy and
contrast finds an explicit manifestation.
4. Give an example of a literary work in which the recurrence of an element has a certain artistic
function.
5. What is the difference between tropes and figures of speech?
6. What aesthetic principles are tropes and figures of speech based upon?
6. РЕЙТИНГОВАЯ СИСТЕМА КОНТРОЛЯ
ЗНАНИЙ СТУДЕНТОВ
Рейтинговая система контроля и оценки знаний предполагает, что на протяжении освоения
учебной дисциплины в каждом семестре студенты набирают определённую сумму баллов, в
зависимости от которой определяется рейтинг (итоговая оценка). Возможная семестровая
сумма – 100 баллов.
Положительная оценка может быть выставлена по результатам итогового рейтинга только
при условии, что по каждому рубежному рейтингу студентом было набрано не менее 60%
максимального количества баллов.
Шкала соответствия рейтинга итоговой оценке (по пятибалльной системе):
- выше 85 баллов – «отлично»;
- 70-85 баллов
- «хорошо»;
- 60-69 баллов
- «удовлетворительно»;
- менее 60 баллов – «неудовлетворительно».
Учебный материал дисциплины «Практическая стилистика английского языка» делится на
два рейтинга. Контроль осуществляется в конце каждого рейтинга и включает компьютерное
тестирование и выполнение практических заданий, предусматривающих использование
навыков и умений стилистического анализа художественного текста. Итоговый контроль
проводится в форме зачёта в конце семестра. Балльная оценка каждого рейтинга
предусматривает учет посещаемости лекционных и практических занятий, текущий контроль, а
также участие студента в работе форумов и подготовке проектов.
6.1 Структура и балльная оценка рейтингов по дисциплине
Содержание рейтингового контроля
1. Оценка по дисциплине
Рейтинговая оценка в баллах
Стартовый
Модуль 1
Модуль 2
рейтинг
3-4-5
2. За посещение
- всех занятий
- не менее 75%
- не менее 50%
3. Оценка ответов на семинарских
занятиях
Общая сумма баллов за ответы на
семинарских занятиях
4. За участие в форумах
5. За защиту проекта
6.
За
выполнение
заданий
компьютерного тестирования
7. Всего (максимальный балл):
5
-
-
5
3
1
5
3
1
3-4-5
3-4-5
15-20-25
6-8-10
15-20-25
6-8-10
3-4-5
3-4-5
3-4-5
45
50
6.2 Содержание рейтингового контроля
Рейтинг 1
1. Give examples to illustrate the fact that certain functional styles, though independently existing,
stand rather close to one another in the general system of the language.
2. What means might the author in popular scientific works resort to if he strives to be understood
by people who might not be well-acquainted with the subject of his article?
3. Give arguments to prove the idea that functional styles present a historical category which
depends upon the actual state or relations among the members of a certain society.
4. What linguistic means contribute to creating imagery in fiction style?
5. What is the difference between denotational and connotational meanings of a word?
6. What types of connotational meanings do you know? Can they sometimes overlap? Give
examples.
7. What groups can the word-stock of any given language be roughly divided into?
8. What is understood by stylistic reference of a word?
9. What is the most common classification of literary words?
10. What is the most common classification of colloquial words?
Рейтинг 2
1. What are the main types of narration in contemporary prose?
2. What features are characteristic of entrusted narrative?
3. In what types of narration can speech characteristics of a personage be found?
4. What does the shift from the author’s narrative to represented speech in an artistic text tell on?
Consider both vocabulary and syntax.
5. What is the difference between a linguistic text and the text of a literary work?
6. In what way can the principle of incomplete representation be manifested in a literary work?
7. Give an example of a literary work you have read in which the principle of analogy and
contrast finds an explicit manifestation.
8. Give an example of a literary work in which the recurrence of an element has a certain artistic
function.
9. What is the difference between tropes and figures of speech?
10. Which of the principles of poetic structure cohesion is manifested in tropes?
11. What principles are the organizing axes in figures of speech?
12. Which stylistic devices are referred to tropes (figures of speech)?
6.3 Тестовые задания для самопроверки
6.3.1 Тест для самопроверки № 1
1. The stylistics of artistic speech deals with ... style study.
Правильный вариант ответа: belles-lettres
2. The most important linguistic means of creating imagery in fiction are… stylistic devices.
phonetic
morphological
syntactic
lexical
3. The correspondence between the functional styles and the sphere of their use is the following
official style
all kinds of official
documents and papers
scientific style
articles, monographs and
other scientific, academic
publications
publicist style
essays, feature articles,
public speeches, etc
newspaper style
materials printed in
newspapers
belles-lettres style versatile genres of
creative writing
4. The word besides denoting a concrete thing may also carry a ….
Правильные варианты ответа:connotation
5. There are words of purely emotive meaning, devoid of denotative meanings, they are ….
Правильные варианты ответа:interjections
6. The biggest division of the word-stock is made up of … words.
Правильные варианты ответа:neutral
7. The major dichotomy of the vocabulary is to be found between stylistically neutral and stylistically
… words
Правильные варианты ответа:marked
8. General literary words are also called ….
Правильные варианты ответа: bookish, learned
9. Interior speech is best known in the form of interior….
represented speech
monologue
dialogue
author’s speech
10. The narrative where personages express their minds in the form of uttered speech is called ….
Правильные варианты ответа:dialogue
11. A peculiar blend of the viewpoints and language spheres of both the author and the character is
characteristic of … speech.
Правильные варианты ответа:represented
12. There are two types of represented speech: represented … speech and represented inner speech.
Правильные варианты ответа:uttered
13. A composition, a plot, a style, all go to create an image of reality and through this image the author
conveys his ….
Правильные варианты ответа:message
14. The idea of the whole represented through a part lies at the base of the principle of …
representation.
Правильные варианты ответа:incomplete
6.3.2 Тест для самопроверки № 2
1. Lexical stylistic devices are also called ….
Правильные варианты ответа: tropes
2. The principle manifested in tropes is that of ….
contrast
incomplete representation
analogy
recurrence
3. The other collective term for tropes is ....
imagery
transference
synonyms
poetic speech
4. The formal elements of a simile are a pair of objects and a ….
conjunction
adverb
connective
adverb
5. Another name for gradation is ….
Правильные варианты ответа:climax
6. Another name for bathos is ….
Правильные варианты ответа:anticlimax
7. Antithesis as a figure of speech is based upon the principle of recurrence and ….
Правильные варианты ответа:contrast
8. Zeugma as a figure of speech is based upon the principle of ….
analogy
recurrence
contrast
incomplete representation
9. Deliberate omission of at least one member of the sentence is called ….
Правильные варианты ответа:ellipsis
10. … is organized with the help of embedded clauses or homogeneous members separating the
predicate from the subject.
Правильные варианты ответа:suspense
11. A periphrasis is … when it stands as a substitute for a concept or thing which the author
finds too unpleasant or is too reticent to name directly.
Правильные варианты ответа:euphemistic
12. … is a reference to specific places, persons, literary characters or historical events that, by some
association, have come to stand for a certain thing or an idea.
Правильные варианты ответа:allusion
6.4. Вопросы для проведения итогового аттестационного контроля
1. Language, the medium of literature
2. Denotative and connotative meanings of the word
3. Word stylistic reference. Words of literary stylistic layer
4. Word stylistic reference. Words of non-literary stylistic layer
5. Denotation and connotation in imaginative literature
6. Connotative function of grammar categories
7. Connotative function of word stylistic reference
8. Verbal and supraverbal layers of the literary text
9. Principles of poetic structure cohesion. Principle of incomplete
representation
10. Principles of poetic structure cohesion. Principle of analogy and contrast
11. Principles of poetic structure cohesion. Principle of recurrence
12. Components of poetic structure. Macro-components and microcomponents
13. Types of tropes
14. Types of figures of speech