Государственная академия славянской культуры

Кафедра лингвистики и межкультурной коммуникации

Учебно-методическое пособие

по курсу

“Стилистика английского языка”

Москва 2009 г.
Составитель: профессор кафедры лингвистики и межкультурной
коммуникации ГАСК, канд. наук Ковтун Л.В.

Рецензент – профессор кафедры лингвистики и межкультурной коммуникации

Склизкова Е.В.

Утверждено учебно-методическим советом факультета лингвистики ГАСК

Данное учебно-методическое пособие предназначено для студентов 3-4 курсов факультета
лингвистики и межкультурной коммуникации. Оно составлено на основании действующей
программы по стилистике английского языка и ставит своей целью ознакомить студентов с
основными теоретическими вопросами стилистики современного английского языка, помочь им
выработать навыки стилистического анализа конкретного языкового материала, научить их
выявлять языковые средства передачи различной информации, определяя их функции и
возможности.
 Введение

Проблемы стилистики с каждым годом привлекают к себе внимание все более широкого
круга лингвистов и литературоведов, а сама стилистика все более дифференцируется и
распадается на отдельные специализированные дисциплины.

Задачей данного пособия является краткое сообщение студентам теоретических знаний о

системе и правилах использования стилистических средств английского языка, о функциях
языковых средств в разных стилях языка, о функциональных разновидностях языка, о
композиционно-речевых формах. Методологической основой излагаемой теории стиля являются
положения отечественного языкознания. Стиль рассматривается как одна из сторон речевой и
языковой деятельности человека. Такое изучение стиля восходит к трудам В.В.Виноградова, к
результатам исследований по психолингвистике, лингвистике и стилистике текста последних лет,
достигнутым отечественными и зарубежными учеными. Анализ изобразительных средств языка
осуществляется на широкой лингвистической базе изученных дисциплин, что позволяет студентам
совершенствовать теоретические и практические знания английского языка.

Пособие состоит из трех частей. Первая часть включает в себя терминологический словарь
с примерами, который поможет студентам при закреплении и повторении материала. Вторая часть
содержит практические задания по основным разделам стилистики. В третьей части
рассматриваются вопросы лингвостилистического анализа художественного текста, дается
приблизительная схема интерпретации художественного текста. Эта часть также содержит
несколько коротких рассказов английских и американских авторов, при анализе которых студенты
могли бы применить полученные знания по стилистике английского языка.

Part 1

Terms you Need to Know

affective epithet

serves to convey the emotional evaluation of the object by the speaker (V.A.K.) 1

e.g.: “gorgeous”, “nasty”, “magnificent”, “atrocious”

alliteration

Used for poetic effect, a repitition of the initial sounds of several words in a group.

The following line from Robert Frost's poem ‘Acquainted with the Night’ provides us with an example of
alliteration,": I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet." The repitition of the ‘s’ sound creates a
sense of quiet, reinforcing the meaning of the line.

e.g.: ... silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain (E.A.Poe)

e.g.: The furrow followed free. (S.T.Coleridge)

e.g.: The Italian trio tut-tuted their tongues at me. (T.Capote)

anaphora

a...,a...,a...,
the beginning of two or more sentences (clauses) is repeated

The main stylistic function is not so much to emphasise the repeated unit as to create the background for
the non-repeated unit, which, through its novelty, becomes foregrounded. (V.A.K.)

e.g.: I might as well face facts: good-bye, Susan, good-bye a big car, good-bye a big house, good-bye
power, good-bye the silly handsome dreams. (J.Braine)

e.g.: And everywhere were people. People going into gates and coming out of gates. People staggering
and falling. People fighting and cursing.(P.Abrahams)

anticlimax

a <climax> suddenly interrupted by an unexpected turn of the thought which defeats expectations of the
reader (listener) and ends in complete semantic reversal of the emphasised idea (V.A.K.)

e.g.: It was appalling – and soon forgotten. (J.Galsworthy)

e.g.: He was unconsolable – for an afternoon. (J.Galsworthy)

e.g.: Women have a wonderful instinct about things. They can discover everything except the obvious.
(O.Wilde)

antithesis

a semantically complicated <parallel construction>, the two parts of which are semantically opposite to
each other

- is to stress the heterogenity of the described phenomenon, to show that the latter is a dialectical unity of
two (or more) opposing features. (V.A.K.)

e.g.: Some people have much to live on, and little to live for. (O.Wilde)

e.g.: If we don’t know who gains by his death we do know who loses by it. (A.Christie)

e.g.: Mrs. Nork had a large home and a small husband. (S.Lewis)

e.g.: In marriage the upkeep of woman is often the downfall of man. (S.Evans)

e.g.: Don’t use big words. They mean so little. (O.Wilde)

antonomasia

type 1: a lexical SD in which a proper name is used instead of a common noun or vice versa, i.e. a lexical
SD in which the nominal meaning of a proper name is suppressed by its logical meaning or the logical
meaning acquires the new nominal component. (V.A.K.)

e.g.: He took little satisfaction in telling each Mary [=any female], shortly after she arrived, something ...
(Th. Dreiser)

e.g.: ”Your fur and his Caddy are a perfect match”. I respect history: “Don’t you know that Detroit was
founded by Sir Antoine de la Mothe Caddilac, French fur trader”.(J.O’Hara)

type 2: a lexical SD in which a common noun serves as an individualising name (V.A.K.)

e.g.: There are three doctors in an illness like yours. I don’t mean only my self, my partner and the
radiologist who does your X-rays, the three I’m referring to are Dr. Rest, Dr. Diet and Dr. Fresh Air.
(D.Cusack)

type 3:“speaking names” whose origin from common nouns is still clearly perceived (V.A.K.)

e.g.: Miss Languish – Мисс Томней, Mr. Backbite – М-р Клевентаун, Mr. Credulous – М-р Доверч,
Mr. Snake – М-р Гад (Sheridan)

e.g.: Lord Chatterino – Лорд Балаболо, John Jaw – Джон Брех, Island Leap-High - Остров
Высокопрыгия (F.Cooper)

e.g.: Mr. What’s-his-name, Mr. Owl Eyes, Colonel Slidebottom, Lady Teazle, Mr. Surface, Miss
Tomboy, Miss Sarcastic, Miss Sneerface, Lady Bracknell

e.g.: The next speaker was a tall gloomy man. Sir Something Somebody. (J.B.Priestley)

apokoinu constructions

the omission of the pronominal (adverbial) connective

- create a blend of the main and the subordinate clauses so that

- the predicative or the object of the first one is simultaneously used as the subject of the second one
(V.A.K.)

e.g.: There was a door led into the kitchen. (Sh.Anderson)

e.g.: He was the man killed that deer. (R.P.Warren)

e.g.: There was no breeze came through the door. (E.Hemingway)

archaisms

such <special literary words> as

a) historical words – denoting historical phenomena which are no more in use

e.g.: ”yeoman”, “vassal”, “falconet”

b) poetic words and highly literary words – used in poetry in the 17 – 19 cc.

e.g.: ”steed” - horse”, “quoth” - said, “woe” - sorrow, “eftsoons” - again, soon after, “rondure” -
roundness

c) archaic words proper – in the course of language history ousted by newer synonymous words or
forms;

e.g.: “to deem” = to think, “repast” = meal, - for “horse”, “quoth” for “said”, “woe” for “sorrow”;
“maketh” = makes, “thou wilt” = you will, “brethren” = brothers, whereof, aforesaid, hereby, therewith,
hereinafternamed

e.g.: If manners maketh man, then manner and grooming maketh poodle.(J.Steinbeck)

Source: (V.A.K.)
Assonance

The repetition of vowel sounds in a literary work, especially in a poem. Edgar Allen Poe's "The Bells"
contains numerous examples. Consider these from stanza 2:

‘Hear the mellow wedding bells –‘ and ‘ From the molten-golden notes,’

The repetition of the short ‘e’ and long ‘o’ sounds denotes a heavier, more serious bell than the bell
encountered in the first stanza where the assonance included the ‘I’ sound in examples such as tinkle,
sprinkle, and twinkle.

e.g.: Nor soul helps flesh now // more than flesh helps soul (R.Browning)

e.g.: Dreadful young creatures – squealing and squawking.(D.Carter)

asyndeton

deliberate omission of conjunctions, cutting off connecting words

- helps to create the effect of terse, energetic, active prose. (V.A.K.)

e.g.: With these hurried words Mr. Bob Sawyer pushed the postboy on one side, jerked his friend into the
vehicle, slammed the door, put up the steps, wafered the bill on the street-door, locked it, put the key into
his pocket, jumped into the dickey, gave the word for starting. (Ch.Dickens)

attachment

separating the second part of the utterance from the first one by full stop though their semantic and
grammatical ties remain very strong (V.A.K.)

e.g.: It wasn’t his fault. It was yours. And mine. I now humbly beg you to give me the money with which
to buy meals for you to eat. And hereafter do remember it: the next time I shan’t beg. I shall simply
starve. (S.Lewis)

e.g.: Prison is where she belongs. And my husband agrees one thousand per cent. (T.Capote)

e.g.: He is a very deliberate, careful guy and we trust each other completely. With a few reservations.
(D.Uhnak)

belles-lettres style ((the) style of imaginative literature)

 the purpose is not to prove but only to suggest a possible interpretation of the phenomena of life
by forcing the reader to see the viewpoint of the writer. This is the cognitive function of the style.
 genuine, to trite, imagery, achieved by purely linguistic devices;

 use of words in contextual and very often in more than one dictionary meaning, or at least greatly
influenced by the lexical environment.
 a vocabulary which will reflect to a greater or lesser degree of author's personal evaluation of
things or phenomena;
 a peculiar individual selection of vocabulary and syntax, a kind of lexical and syntactical
idiosyncrasy;
 the introduction of the typical features of colloquial language to a full degree (in plays) or a lesser
one (in emotive prose) or a slight degree, if any (in poems)
  individual, distinctive properties, aesthetic-cognitive effect.

Substyles:

 The language of poetry (verse) – rhyme, rhythmic and phonetic arrangement, strict orderly
arrangement, compact, brevity of expression, epigram-like utterances; fresh, unexpected
imaginary; elliptical and fragmentary sentences and other [SEM]. Versification and prosody.
 Emotive prose (fiction): the imagery not so rich and the % of words with contextual meaning is
not so high as it is in poetry, the idiosyncrasy2 of the author not so clearly discernible; monologue
and dialogue, use of elements from other styles (newspaper, official, scientific);
 The language of drama. : stylised language, entirely dialogue, the author's speech is almost
entirely excluded except for the playwright's remarks and stage directions, significant though they
may be. Use the norms of the literary language of the given period.

break-in-the-narrative (aposiopesis)

“a stopping short for rhetorical effect” (I.R.G.)

- used mainly in the dialogue or in the other forms of narrative imitating spontaneous oral speech because
the speaker’s emotions prevent him from finishing the sentence (V.A.K.)

e.g.: You just come home or I’ll ...

e.g.: Good intentions, but ...

e.g.: If you continue your intemperate way of living, in six months’ time ...

e.g.: What I had seen of Patti didn’t really contradict Kitty’s view of her: a girl who means well, but

cacophony

a sense of strain and discomfort in pronouncing or hearing (V.A.K.)

catch repetition (anadiplosis, reduplication)

. . . a, a . . .

the end of one clause (sentence) is repeated in the beginning of the following one

The stylistic function is to elucidate the notion, to concretise and to specify its semantics on a more
modest level. (V.A.K.)

e.g.: Now he understood. he understood many things. One can be a person first. A man first and then a
black man or a white man. (P.Abrahams)

e.g.: And a great desire for peace, peace of no matter what kind, swept through her.(A.Bennet)

chain repetition

. . . a, a . . . b, b. . .

several successive repetitions

The effect is that of the smoothly developing logical reasoning. (V.A.K.)

e.g.: ”To think better of it,” returned the gallant Blandois, “would be to slight a lady, to slight a lady
would be to be deficient in chivalry towards the sex, and chivalry towards the sex is a part of my
character.” (Ch.Dickens)

e.g.: Failure meant poverty, poverty meant squalor, squalor led, in the final stages, to the smells and
stagnation of B. Inn Alley. (D. du Maurier)

chiasmus (reversed parallel construction)

a) reversed parallelism of the structure of several sentences (clauses)

b) <inversion> of the first construction in the second part (V.A.K.)

e.g.: If the first sentence (clause) has a direct word order – SPO, the second one will have it inverted –
OPS.

e.g.: Down dropped the breeze, // The sails dropped down. (Coleridge)

climax (gradation)

a semantically complicated <parallel construction>, in which each next word combination (clause,
sentence) is logically more important or emotionally stronger and more explicit (V.A.K.)

Three types:

logical climax

a three-step <climax> (the most widely spread model), in which intensification of logical importance, of
emotion or quantity (size, dimensions) is gradually rising step by step (V.A.K.)

- is based on the relative importance of the component parts looked at from the point of view of the
concepts embodied in them (I.R.G.)

e.g.: Better to borrow, better to beg, better to die! (Ch.Dickens)

e.g.: Like a well, like a vault, like a tomb, the prison had no knowledge of the brightness outside.
(Ch.Dickens)

e.g.: For that one instant there was no one else in the room, in the house, in the world, besides themselves.
(M.Wilson)

emotive climax

a two-step <climax>, in which the second part repeats the first one and is further strengthened by an
intensifier (V.A.K.)

- is based on the relative emotional tension produced by words with emotive meaning (I.R.G.)

e.g.: He was so helpless, so very helpless. (W.Deeping)

e.g.: She felt better, immensely better. (W.Deeping)

e.g.: I have been so unhappy here, so very very unhappy. (Ch.Dickens)

quantitative climax

an evident increase in the volume of the corresponding concepts (I.R.G.)

e.g.: They looked at hundreds of houses; they climbed thousands of stairs; they inspected innumerable
kitchens.(S.Maugham)

e.g.: Little by little, bit by bit, and day by day, and year by year the baron got the worst of some disputed
question. (Ch.Dickens)

Examples:

e.g.: We were all in all to one another, it was the morning of life, it was bliss, it was frenzy, it was
everything else of that sort in the highest degree. (Ch.Dickens)

e.g.: I am firm, thou art obstinate, he is pig-headed. (B.Charlestone)

e.g.: No tree, no shrub, no blade of grass that was not owned. (J. Galsworthy)

cluster SDs

a small group (cluster) of SDs, which

a) operate on the same linguistic mechanism: namely, one word-form is deliberately used in two
meanings;

b) have humorous effect, and

c) include: <pun> or <paronomasia>, <zeugma>, <violation of phraseological units>, <semantically false

chains>, <nonsense of non-sequence>;

colloquial words

a) employed in non-official everyday communication

b) their use is associated with the oral form of communication

c) mark the message as informal, non-official, conversational

e.g.: ”dad”, “kid”, “crony”, “fan”, “to pop”, “folks”

d) include <special colloquial words>

e.g.: She’s engaged. Nice guy, too. Though there’s a slight difference in height. I’d say a foot, her favor.
(T.Capote)

(logical) comparison

an ordinary comparison of two objects belonging to the same classes (V.A.K.)

e.g.: She is like her mother.

Compare: <simile>

completeness of sentence structure

includes: <ellipsis>, <apokoinu constructions>, <break-in-the-narrative> or <aposiopesis>

consonance

The repetition of consonant sounds with differing vowel sounds in words near each other in a line or lines
of poetry. Consider the following example from Theodore Roethke's "Night Journey:"

We rush into a rain

That rattles double glass.

The repetition of the ‘r’ sound in rush, rain, and rattles, occurring so close to each other in these two
lines, would be considered consonance.

Detachment (detached construction)

a <stylistic device> based on singling out a secondary member of the sentence with the help of
punctuation (intonation) (V.A.K.)

e.g.: I have to beg you nearly killed, ingloriously, in a jeep accident. (I.Shaw)

e.g.: I have to beg you for money. Daily. (S.Lewis)

e.g.: She was crazy about you. In the beginning. (R.P.Warren)

dialectal words

such <special colloquial words> which

a) 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;

b) markedly differ on the phonemic level: one and the same phoneme is differently pronounced in each of
them;

c) 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.

e.g.: ”son of a bitch”, “whore”, “whorehound”

e.g.: A hut was all the (= the only) home he ever had.

e.g.: Mary sits aside (= beside) of her sister on the bus.

ellipsis

a deliberate omission of at least one member of the sentence

e.g.: What! all my pretty chickens and their dam at one fell swoop? (W.Shakespeare)

e.g.: In manner, close and dry. In voice, husky and low. In face, watchful behind a blind. (Ch.Dickens)
e.g.: His forehead was narrow, his face wide, his head large, and his nose all one side. (Ch.Dickens)

epic simile (Homeric simile)

extended <simile>, sustained expression of likeness

epiphora

. . . a, . . . a, . . . a,

the end of successive sentences (clauses) is repeated

The main stylistic function is to add stress to the final words of the sentence.(V.A.K.)

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 and I look at his face when I’m home and it’s dead. (J.Braine)

epithet

a <stylistic device> based on the interplay of emotive and logical meaning in an attributive word, phrase
or even sentence, used to characterise and object and pointing out to the reader, and frequently imposing
on him, some of the properties or features of the object with the aim of giving an individual perception
and evaluation of these features or properties

e.g.: ”wild wind”, “loud ocean”, “remorseless dash of billows”, “formidable waves”, “heart-burning
smile”; “destructive charms”, “glorious sight”, “encouraging smile”

- is markedly subjective and evaluative;

Source: (I.R.G.)

- expresses characteristics of an object, both existing and imaginary;

- <foregrounding> the emotive meaning of the word to suppress its denotational meaning

- semantically there should be differentiated two main groups: <affective epithet>s and <figurative
epithet>s or <transferred epithet>s;

- structurally there should be differentiated: single epithets, pair epithets, chains or strings, two-step
structures, inverted constructions, phrase-attributes

- is the most widely used lexical SD;

Chains or strings of epithets present a group of homogeneous attributes varying in number from three up
to sometimes twenty and even more.

e.g.: You’re a scolding, unjust, abusive, aggravating, bad old creature.(Ch.Dickens)

e.g.: He’s a proud, haughty, consequential, turned-nosed peacock. (Ch.Dickens)

Phrase-epithets always produce an original impression.

e.g.: ”the sunshine-in-the-breakfast-room smell” (J.Baldwin)

e.g.: ”a move-if-you-dare expression”(J.Greenwood)

e.g.: There was none of the Old-fashioned Five-Four-Three-Two-One-Zero business, so tough on the
human nervous system. (A.Clarke)

Inverted epithets based on the contradiction between the logical and the syntactical: logically defining
becomes syntactically defined and vice versa. The article with the second noun will help in doubtful
cases.

e.g.: ”this devil of a woman” instead of “this devilish woman”, “the giant man” (a gigantic man); “the
prude of a woman” (a prudish woman), “the toy of a girl” (a small, toylike girl), “the kitten of a woman”
(a kittenlike woman)

e.g.: She was a faded white rabbit of a woman. (A.Cronin)

euphony

a sense of ease and comfort in pronouncing or hearing (V.A.K.)

expressive means (EMs)

are those phonetic, morphological, word-building, lexical, phraseological and syntactical forms which
exist in language-as-a-system for the purpose of logical and/or emotional intensification of the utterance
(I.R.G.)

 Phonetic EM: pitch, melody, stress, pausation, drawling, drawling out certain syllables,
whispering, a sing-song manner of speech (onomatopoeia, alliteration, rhyme, rhythm)
 Morphological EM: the Historical Present (the Present Indefinite instead of the Past Indefinite);
use of shall in the 2nd and 3rd person; the diminutive suffixes as y(ei), -let, e.g. dear - dearie,
stream - streamlet ; neologisms, literary coinage and nonce-words3; certain affixes e.g. –isms,
-ologies.
 Lexical EM: words with emotive meaning, like interjections, qualitative adjectives, twofold
meaning words, denotative and connotative;
- special groups and non-standard words (terms, poetic and highly literary, archaic, barbarisms
and foreign, colloquial, slang, jargonisms, professionalisms, dialectal, vulgar);
- set expressions (clichés, proverbs and sayings, epigrams, quotations, allusions, catch-words:
well-known and rare)
- metaphor, metonymy, irony; polysemy, zeugma and pun, interjections and exclamatory words,
oxymoron; simile, periphrasis, euphemism, hyperbole;
 Syntactical EM: logical and emotional emphasis
– compositional (stylistic inversion, detached constructions, parallel construction, chiasmus 4,
repetition, enumeration, suspense, climax, antithesis)
– particular (asyndeton, polysyndeton, the "Gap-Sentence" link; ellipsis, break-in-the-narrative,
question-in-the-narrative, represented speech)
– rhetorical questions and litotes5;

figurative epithet (transferred epithet)

an <epithet> that is formed of <metaphor>, <metonymy>, <simile>, expressed by adjectives (V.A.K.)

e.g.: ”the smiling sun”, “the frowning cloud”, “the sleepless pillow”, “the tobacco-stained smile”, a
“ghost-like face”, “a dreamlike experience”, “triumphant look”

figurative periphrasis

a <periphrasis> that is made of phrase-metonymies or phrase-metaphors (V.A.K.)

- is to convey a purely individual perception of the described object

e.g.: The hospital was crowded with the surgically interesting products of the fighting in Africa. \
[=wounded\] (I.Shaw)

e.g.: His huge leather chairs were kind to the femurs. (R.P.Warren)

e.g.: I took my obedient feet away from him. (W.S.Gilbert)

foregrounding

the ability of a verbal element to obtain extra significance, to say more in a definite context (Prague
linguists)

framing

a...a

the beginning of the sentence is repeated in the end, thus forming the “frame” for the non-repeated part of
the sentence (utterance)

The stylistic function is to elucidate the notion mentioned in the beginning of the sentence, to concretise
and to specify its semantics. (V.A.K.)

e.g.: Obviously – this is a streptococcal infection. Obviously. (W.Deeping)

e.g.: Then there was something between them. There was. There was. (T.Dreiser)

functional style (FS)

a) a system of interrelated language means which serves a definite aim of communication

b) includes: <official style>, <scientific style>, <publicist style>, <newspaper style>, <belles-lettres
style>

c) the co-ordination of the language means and <stylistic device>s which shapes the distinctive features
of each style, and not the language means or SD themselves

d) a patterned variety of literary text characterised by the greater or lesser typification of its constituents,
supra-phrasal units, in which the choice and arrangement of interdependent and interwoven language
media are calculated to secure the purport of the communication

graphon

1. Intentional violation of the graphical shape of a word (or word combination) used to reflect its
authentic pronunciation, to recreate the individual and social peculiarities of the speaker, the atmosphere
of the communication act. (V.A.K.)

e.g.: I had a coach with a little seat in fwont with an iwon wail for the dwiver. (Ch. Dickens ) – [с
гашеткой впегеди для кучега.]

e.g.: You don’t mean to thay that thith ith your firth time. (D.Cusack)
2. All changes of the type (italics, CapiTaliSation), s p a c i n g of graphemes, (hy-phe-na-ti-on, m-m-
multiplication) and of lines. (V.A.K.)

e.g.: ”Alllll aboarrrrrrrd”.

e.g.: “Help. Help. HELP” (A.Huxley)

e.g.: ”grinning like a chim-pan-zee” (O’Connor)

e.g.: ”Kiddies and grown-ups too-oo-oo // We haven’t enough to do-oo-oo. (R.Kipling)

hyperbole

a <stylistic device> in which emphasis is achieved through deliberate exaggeration (V.A.K.)

It does not signify the actual state of affairs in reality, but presents the latter through the emotionally
coloured perception and rendering of the speaker.

e.g.: My vegetable love should grow faster than empires. (A.Marvell)

e.g.: The man was like the Rock of Gibraltar.

e.g.: Calpurnia was all angles and bones.

e.g.: I was scared to death when he entered the room.(J.D.Salinger)

individual style

a unique combination of language units, <expressive means> and <stylistic device>s peculiar to a given
writer, which makes that writer’s works or even utterances easily recognisable (I.R.G)

inversion

a syntactical <stylistic device> in which the direct word order is changed either completely so that the
predicate precedes the subject (complete inversion), or partially so that the object precedes the subjectp-
predicate pair (partial inversion) (V.A.K.)

e.g.: To a medical student the final examinations are something like death ... (R.Gordon) – [lang
id=2]Для студента-медика выпускные экзамены – смерти подобны ... [/lang]

e.g.: Of all my old association. of all my old pursuits and hopes, of all the living and the dead world, this
one poor soul alone comes natural to me. (Ch.Dickens)

e.g.: Women are not made for attack. Wait they must. (J.Conrad)

irony

a) is a <stylistic device> in which the contextual evaluative meaning of a word is directly opposite to its
dictionary meaning

b) is the <foregrounding> not of the logical but of the evaluative meaning

c) is the contradiction between the said and implied

c) is subdivided into <verbal irony> and <sustained irony>

The context is arranged so that the qualifying word in irony reverses the direction of the evaluation, and
the word positively charged is understood as a negative qualification and (much-much rarer) vice versa.
The context varies from the minimal – a word combination to the context of a whole book.

e.g.: The lift held two people and rose slowly, groaning with diffidence.(I.Murdoch)

e.g.: Apart from splits based on politics, racial, religious and ethic backgrounds and specific personality
differences, we’re just one cohesive team.(D.Uhnak)

Jargonisms (special slang)

such <special colloquial words> which

a) stand close to <slang>, also being substandard, expressive and emotive, but, unlike slang

b) are used by limited groups of people, united either professionally (<professional jargonisms> or
<professionalisms>) or socially (<jargonisms proper>)

c) cover a narrow semantic field, function and sphere of application

d) tending to expanded synonymity within certain lexico-semantic groups

jargonisms proper

such <jargonisms> which

a) served to conceal the actual significance of the utterance from the uninitiated;

c) originated from the thieves’ jargon (l’argo, cant);

b) was to be cryptic, secretive (major function);

lexical level (word-stock, stratum of words)

includes: <literary words>, <neutral words>, <colloquial words>

lexical stylistic devices (lexical SDs)

include: <metaphor>, <personification>; <metonymy>, <synecdoche>; <cluster SDs>; play on words,

<irony>, <epithet>, <hyperbole>, <understatement>, <oxymoron>

lexico-syntactical stylistic devices (lexico-syntactical SDs)

certain structures, whose emphasis depends not only on the arrangement of sentence members but also on
the lexico-semantic aspect of the utterance (V.A.K.)

- include: <antithesis>, <climax>, <anticlimax>, <simile>, <litotes>, <periphrasis>

literary words (learned words, bookish words, high-flown words)

a) serve to satisfy communicative demands of official, scientific, high poetry and poetic messages,
authorial speech of creative prose;

b) mainly observed in the written form;

c) contribute to the message the tone of solemnity, sophistication, seriousness, gravity, learnedness.

e.g.: I must decline to pursue this painful discussion, It is not pleasant to my feelings; it is repugnant to
my feelings. (Ch.Dickens)

See: <neutral words>, <colloquial words>; <special literary words>; <lexical level>

Source: (V.A.K.)

litotes

a two-component structure in which two negations are joined to give a possessive evaluation

- the first component is always the negative particle “not”, while the second, always negative in
semantics, varies in form from a negatively affixed word (as above) to a negative phrase (V.A.K.)

e.g.: Her face was not unpretty. (K.Kesey)

e.g.: It was not unnatural if Gilbert felt a certain embarrassment. (E.Waugh)

e.g.: The idea was not totally erroneous. The thought did not displease me. (I.Murdoch)

logical periphrasis (euphemistic periphrasis)

a phrase synonymic with the words which were substituted by <periphrasis> (V.A.K.)

- offers more polite qualification instead of a coarser one (euphemistic)

e.g.: Mr. Du Pont was dressed in the conventional disguise \[the suit \] with which Brooks Brothers cover
the shame of American millionaires \[the paunch (belly)\]. (The Morning Star)

e.g.: I am thinking an unmentionable thing about your mother. (I.Shaw)

metaphor

<transference> of names based on the associated likeness between two objects, on the similarity of one
feature common to two different entities, on possessing one common characteristic, on linguistic semantic
nearness, on a common component in their semantic structures.

e.g.: ”pancake” for the “sun” (round, hot, yellow)

e.g.: ”silver dust” and “sequins” for “stars”

The expressiveness is promoted by the implicit simultaneous presence of images of both objects – the one
which is actually named and the one which supplies its own “legal” name, while each one enters a phrase
in the complexity of its other characteristics.
The wider is the gap between the associated objects the more striking and unexpected – the more
expressive – is the metaphor.

e.g.: His voice was a dagger of corroded brass. (S.Lewis)

e.g.: They walked alone, two continents of experience and feeling, unable to communicate. (W.S.Gilbert)

Source: (V.A.K.)

metaphoric periphrasis (metonymic periphrasis)

See: <figurative periphrasis>

metonymy

<transference> of names based on contiguity (nearness), on extralinguistic, actually existing relations

between the phenomena (objects), denoted by the words, on common grounds of existence in reality but
different semantic (V.A.K.)

e.g.: ”cup” and “tea” in “Will you have another cup?”

e.g.: ”My brass will call your brass” (A.Heiley)

e.g.: Dinah, a slim, fresh, pale eighteen, was pliant and yet fragile.(C.Holmes)

morphemic repetition

repetition of a morpheme, both root and affixational, to emphasise and promote it (V.A.K.)

e.g.: They unchained, unbolted and unlocked the door. (A.Bennett)

e.g.: Laughing, crying, cheering, chaffing, singing, David Rossi’s people brought him home in triumph.
(H.Caine)

e.g.: Young Blight made another great show of changing the volume, taking up a pen, sucking it, sipping
it, and running over previous entries before he wrote. As, “Mr. Alley, Mr. Balley, Mr. Calley, Mr. Dalley,
Mr. Falley, Mr. Galley, Mr. Halley, Mr. Lalley, Mr. Malley. And Mr. Boffin. (Ch.Dickens)

morphological level

includes:, <morphemic repetition>

neutral words

the overwhelming majority of lexis (V.A.K)

newspaper style

 a system of interrelated lexical, phraseological and grammatical means which is perceived by the
community speaking the language as a separate unity that basically serves the purpose of
informing and instructing the reader.
 primary function is to impart information, seeks to influence public opinion on political and other
matters
  (brief news items and communiqués, press reports, purely informational, advertisement and
announcements, editorials)
 alleges and claims, restrictions of time and space
 special political and economic terms, non-term political vocabulary, newspaper clichés,
abbreviations, neologisms;
 syntactic constructions, indicating a lack of assurance of the reporter as to the correctness of the
facts reported or his desire to avoid responsibility [Complex Subject]
 complex sentences with a developed system of clauses;
 syntactical complexes: verbal constructions (infinitive, participial, gerundial) and verbal noun
constructions;
 specific word order – five-w-and-h-pattern rule: (who-what-why-how-where-when)
 attributive noun groups (e.g. leap into space age);
 the most concise is the headlines, + considerable amount of appraisal (the size and arrangement,
the use of emotionally coloured words and elements of emotive syntax)

nonsense of non-sequence

joining two semantically disconnected clauses into one sentence (A.V.K.)

e.g.: Emperor Nero played the fiddle, so they burnt Rome.(Y.Esar)

occasional words (nonce-words)

extension of the normative valency which results in the formation of new words. An effective way of
using a morpheme for the creation of additional information. They are not neologisms in the true sense
for they are created for special communicative situations only , and are not used beyond these occasions.
(V.A.K.)

e.g.: I am an undersecretary of an underbureau. (I.Show)

e.g.: Parritt turns startledly. (E.O’Neill)

e.g.: That was masterly. Or should one say mistressly. (A.Huxley)

official style ((the) style of official documents, officialese)

 the main aim is to state the conditions binding two parties in an undertaking (the state and the
citizen, citizen and citizen, the society and its members, two or more enterprises or bodies, a
person and subordinates)
 the aim is to reach agreement between two contracting parties.
 special system of clichés, terms and set expressions; conventionality of expression;
 each of subdivisions of this style has its own peculiar terms, phrases and expressions;
 the encoded character of language; symbols: special terminological nomenclature, abbreviations,
conventional symbols and contractions;
 use of words in their logical dictionary meaning. There is no room for words with contextual
meaning or for any kind of simultaneous realisation of two meanings.
 Word with emotive meaning are also not to be found in the style of official documents, except
those which are used in business letters as conventional phrases of greeting or close (as Dear Sir)
 absence of any emotiveness: (commercial correspondence) emotional words and phrases
 compositional patterns, compositional design; infinitive object clauses
 a general syntactical mode of combining several pronouncement into one sentence, the whole
document in one sentence [acc. to] its formal syntactical structure

Substyles:
  the language of business documents,
 the language of legal documents,
 that of diplomacy,
 that of military documents;

(direct) onomatopoeia

1) the use of words whose sounds imitate those of the signified object of action (V.A.K.)

2) a combination of speech-sounds which aims at imitating sounds produced in nature (wind, sea,
thunder, etc.), by things (machines or tools, etc.) by people (sighing, laughter, patter of feet, etc.) and by
animals (I.R.G.)

e.g.: ”hiss”, “powwow”, “murmur”, “bump”, “grumble”, “sizzle”, “ding-dong”, “buzz”, “bang”,
“cuckoo”, “tintinnabulation”, “mew”, “ping-pong”, “roar”

e.g.: Then with enormous, shattering rumble, sludge-puff, sludge-puff, the train came into the station.
(A.Saxton)

one-word sentences

possess a very strong emphatic impact, for their only word obtains both the word- and the sentence-stress.
The word constituting a sentence also obtains its own sentence-intonation which, too, helps to foreground
the content. (V.A.K.)

e.g.: I like people. Not just empty streets and dead buildings. People. People. (P.Abrahams)

order of words

and <punctuation> are used to convey the corresponding pausation and intonation in the written form of
speech (V.A.K.)

ordinary repetition

. . . a, . . . a . . ., a . . .

. . a . ., . . a . ., . . a . .

no definite place in the sentence, the repeated unit occurs in various positions

The stylistic function is to emphasise both the logical and the emotional meaning of the reiterated word
(phrase). (V.A.K.)

e.g.: Halfway along the right-hand side of the dark brown hall was a dark brown door with a dark brown
settie beside it. (W.S.Gilbert)

e.g.: I really don’t see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is
nothing romantic about a definite proposal. (O.Wilde)

oxymoron

1) a combination of two words (mostly an adjective and a noun or an adverb with an adjective) in which
the meanings of the two clash, being opposite in sense (I.R.G.)
2) a combination of two semantically contradictory notions, that help to emphasise contradictory qualities
simultaneously existing in the described phenomenon as a dialectical unity (V.A.K.)

e.g.: ”low skyscraper”, “sweet sorrow”, “nice rascal”, “pleasantly ugly face”, “horribly beautiful”, “a
deafening silence from Whitehall” (The Morning Star)

e.g.: ”The Beauty of the Dead”, “to shout mutely”, “to cry silently”, “the street damaged by
improvements” (O.Henry), “silence was louder than thunder” (J.Updike)

e.g.: O brawling love! O loving hate! O heavy lightness! Serious vanity! Feather of lead, bright smoke,
cold fire, sick heath! (W.Shakespeare)

e.g.: You have two beautiful bad examples for parents. (Sc.Fitzgerald)

parallel construction

reiteration of the structure of several sentences (clauses), and not of their lexical “flesh”

almost always includes some type of lexical repetition, and such a convergence produces a very strong
effect, <foregrounding> at one go logical, rhythmic, emotive and expressive aspects of the utterance.
(V.A.K.)

e.g.: I notice that father’s is a large hand, but never a heavy one when it touches me, and that father’s is a
rough voice but never an angry one when it speaks to me. (T.Dreiser)

periphrasis

a) using a roundabout form of expression instead of a simpler one

b) using a more or less complicated syntactical structure instead of a word

They are classified into:

- <figurative periphrasis> or <metaphoric periphrasis> or <metonymic periphrasis>

- <logical periphrasis> or <euphemistic periphrasis>

Source: (V.A.K.)

personification

a <metaphor> that involves likeness between inanimate and animate objects (V.A.K)

e.g.: ”the face of London”, “the pain of ocean”

e.g.: Geneva, mother of the Red Cross, hostess of humanitarian congresses for the civilizing of warfare.
(J.Reed)

e.g.: Notre Dame squats in the dusk.(E.Hemingway)

phono-graphical level

includes: <onomatopoeia>, <alliteration>, <assonance>, <graphon>

polysyndeton

repeated use of conjunctions

- is to strengthen the idea of equal logical/emotive importance of connected sentences. (V.A.K.)

e.g.: By the time he had got all the bottles and dishes and knives and forks and glasses and plates and
spoons and things piled up on big trays, he was getting very hot, and red in the face, and annoyed.
(A.Tolkien)

e.g.: Bella soaped his face and rubbed his face, and soaped his hands and rubbed his hands, and splashed
him, and rinsed him, and towelled him, until he was as red as beetroot. (Ch.Dickens)

practical stylistic

the stylistics, proceeding from the norms of language usage at a given period and teaching these norms to
language speakers, especially the ones, dealing with the language professionally (editors, publishers,
writers, journalists, teachers, etc.). (V.A.K.)

professional jargonisms (professionalisms)

such <jargonisms> which

a) connected with the technical side of some profession

e.g.: ”driller” = borer, digger, wrencher, hogger, brake weight

e.g.: ”pipeliner” = swabber, bender, cat, old cat, collar-pecker, hammerman

b) are formed according to the existing word-building patterns of present existing words in new
meanings, and,

c) covering the field of special professional knowledge, which is semantically limited, offer a vast variety
of synonymic choices for naming one and the same professional item

Source: (V.A.K.)

publicist style

 general aim is to exert a constant and deep influence on public opinion, to convince the reader or
the listener that the interpretation given by the writer of the speaker is the only correct one and to
cause him to accept the point of view … not merely by logical argumentation, but by emotional
appeal as well (brain-washing function).
 combination of logical argumentation and emotional appeal;
 features, common with the style of scientific prose and emotive prose;
 coherent and logical syntactical structure, expanded system of connectives and careful
paragraphing;
 use of words with emotive meaning, the use of other SD as in emotive prose, but
 the SD are not fresh or genuine.
 individual element is little in evidence here, generally toned down and limited
 brevity of expression (sometimes epigrammatic) – leading feature;

Substyles:

 oratorical (direct contact with the listeners);

  radio commentary;
 essay (moral, philosophical, literary; book review in journals and magazines, pamphlets) is a
literary composition of moderate length on … subjects. It never goes deep into the subject but
merely touches upon the surface, a series of personal and witty comments;
 articles (political, social, economic);

Pun (play on words)

simultaneous realisation of two meanings through

a) misinterpretation of one speaker’s utterance by the other, which results in his remark dealing with a
different meaning of the misinterpreted word or its homonym

e.g.: ”Have you been seeing any spirits?” “Or taking any?” – added Bob Allen. (Ch.Dickens)(The first
“spirit” refers to supernatural forces the second one – to strong drinks)

b) speaker’s intended violation of the listener’s expectation

e.g.: There comes a period in every man’s life, but she is just a semicolon in his. (B.Evans) a punctuation
mark instead of an interval of time)

e.g.: There are two things I look for in a man. A sympathetic character and full lips.(I.Shaw)

punctuation

Points of exclamation, points of interrogation, dots, dashes; commas, semicolons and full stops serve as
an additional source of information and help to specify the meaning of the written sentence which in oral
speech would be conveyed by the intonation. (V.A.K.)

e.g.: ”What’s your name?” “John Lewis.” “Mine’s Liza. Watkin.” (K.Kesey)

e.g.: ”You know so much. Where is she?” “Dead. Or in a crazy house.” Or married. I think she’s married
and quieted down.” (T.Capote)

e.g.: The neon lights in the heart of the city flashed on and off. On and off. On. Off. On. Off.
Continuiously. (P.Abrahams)

rhetorical question

1) peculiar interrogative construction which semantically remains a statement;

- does not demand any information but

- serves to express the emotions of the speaker and also

- serves to call the attention of listeners;

- makes an indispensable part of oratoric speech for they very successfully emphasise the orator’s ideas.
(V.A.K.)

2) a special syntactical stylistic device the essence of which consists in reshaping the grammatical
meaning of the interrogative sentence (I.R.G.)
e.g.: Are these the remedies for a starving and desperate populace?

scientific style

 aim: to prove a hypothesis, to create new concepts, to disclose the internal laws of existence,
development, relations between different phenomena, etc.
 logical sequence of utterances with clear indication of their interrelations and interdependence;
logical coherence of ideas expressed;
 objective, precise, unemotional, devoid of any individuality, striving for the most generalised
form of expression.
 developed and varied system of connectives
 use of terms specific to each given branch of science
 direct referential (and primary logical) meaning of the general vocabulary; self-explanatory
terms; neutral and common literary words; the possibility of ambiguity is avoided;
 Hardly a single word will be found here which is used in more than one meaning, nor will be any
words with contextual meaning;
 sentence-patterns (postulatory, argumentative, formulative)
 based on facts already known, on facts systematised and defined;
 quotations and references
 foot-notes, digressive in character
 impersonality: frequent use of passive constructions, [infinitive constructions]
 Impersonal passive constructions are frequently used with the verbs suppose, assume, point out
 far greater amount of preliminary knowledge
 there may be hypotheses, pronouncements and conclusions, (backed up by strong belief)

semantically false chains

a variation of <zeugma> when the number of homogeneous members, semantically disconnected, but
attached to the same verb, increases (V.A.K.)

e.g.: A Governess wanted. Must possess knowledge of Roumanian, Russian, Italian, Spanish, German,
Music and Mining Engineering. (S.Leacock)

e.g.: Men, pals, red plush seats, white marble tables, waiters in white aprons. Miss Moss walked through
them all. (A.Milne)

sentence structure

Not only the clarity and understandability of the sentence but also its expressiveness depend on the
position of clauses, constituting it.

loose structure

- opens with the main clause, which is followed by dependent units

- less emphatic and is highly characteristic of informal writing and conversation

periodic sentences

- open with subordinate clauses, absolute and participial constructions, the main clause being withheld
until the end

- are known for their emphasis and are used mainly in creative prose
e.g.: Such being at bottom the fact, I think it is well to leave it at that. (S.Maugham)

balanced sentences

- subordinate-main-subordinate similar structuring of the beginning of the sentence and its end;

- known for stressing the logic and reasoning of the content and thus preferred in publicist writing;

Source: (V.A.K.)

sign

a material, sensuously perceived object (phenomenon, action) appearing in the process of cognition and
communication in the capacity of a representative (substitute) of another object (or objects) and used for
receiving, storing, recasting and transforming information about this object

simile

an imaginative comparison of two unlike objects belonging to two different classes on the grounds of
similarity of some quality

The one which is compared is called the tenor, the one with which it is compared, is called the vehicle.
The tenor and the vehicle form the two semantic poles of the simile, which are connected by one of the
following link words: “like”, “as”, “as though”, “as like”, “such as”, as ... as”, etc. (V.A.K.)

e.g.: She is like a rose.

e.g.: He stood immovable like a rock in a torrent. (J.Reed)

e.g.: His muscles are hard as rock. (T.Capote)

e.g.: The conversation she began behaved like green logs: they fumed but would not fire. (T.Capote)

(general) slang

such <special colloquial words> which

a) used by most speakers in very and highly informal, substandard communication

b) are highly emotive and expressive and as such

d) lose their originality rather fast and

c) are replaced by newer formations, unstable, fluctuating, tending to expanded synonymity within certain
lexico-semantic groups

e.g.: Now take fried, crocked, squiffed, loaded plastered, blotto, tiddled, soaked, boiled, stinko, viled,
polluted”(K.Kesey)

e.g.: ”Do you talk?” asked Bundle. “or are you just strong and silent?” “Talk?” said Anthony. “I burble. I
murmur. I gurgle – like a running brook, you know. Sometimes I even ask questions.” (A.Christie)

Source: (V.A.K.)

special colloquial words

<slang>, <jargonisms>, <vulgarisms>, <dialectical words>

special literary words

such <literary words> as <terms> and <archaisms> (V.A.K)

Stylistics (style of language)

is a system of co-ordinated, interrelated and inter-conditioned language means intended to fulfil a specific
function of communication and aiming at a definite effect (I.R.G)

stylistic device (SD)

is a conscious and intentional intensification of some typical structural and/or semantic property of a
language unit (neutral or expressive) promoted to a generalised status and thus becoming a generative
model (I.R.G.)

stylistic norm

the invariant of the phonemic, morphological. lexical and syntactical patterns circulating in language-in-
action at a given period of time (I.R.G.)

successive repetition

. . . a, a, a . . .

a string of closely following each other reiterated units

The most emphatic type of repetition which signifies the peak of emotions of the speaker. (V.A.K.)

e.g.: Of her father’s being groundlessly suspected, she felt sure. Sure. Sure. (Ch.Dickens)

suspense

1) a deliberate postponement of the completion of the sentence with the help of embedded clauses
(homogeneous members) separating the predicate from the subject and introducing less important facts
and details first, while the expected information of major importance is reserved till the end of the
sentence (utterance) (V.A.K.)

2) a compositional device which consists in arranging the matter of a communication in such a way that
the less important, descriptive, subordinate parts are amassed at the beginning, the main idea being
withheld till the end of the sentence (I.R.G)

e.g.: Mankind, says a Chinese manuscript, which my friend M. was obliging enough to read and explain
to me, for the first seventy thousand ages ate their meat raw. (Ch.Lamb)

sustained irony

a) a type of <irony>, intuitively feeling the reversal of the evaluation, formed by the contradiction of the
speaker’s (writer’s) considerations and the generally accepted moral and ethical codes;

b) a number of statements, the whole of the text, in whose meaning we can trace the contradiction
between the said and implied.
e.g.: Many examples are supplied by D.Defoe, J.Swift of by such twentieth c. writers as S.Lewis,
K.Vonnegut, E.Waugh and others.

e.g.: When the war broke out she took down the signed photograph of the Kaiser and, with some
solemnity, hung it in the men-servants’ lavatory; it was her one combative action. (E.Waugh)

Source: (V.A.K.)

sustained metaphor (prolonged metaphor)

a group (cluster) of <metaphor>s, each supplying another feature of the described phenomenon to present
an elaborated image (V.A.K.)

synecdoche

a <metonymy> based on the relations between the part and the whole (V.A.K.)

e.g.: He made his way through perfume and conversation. (I.Shaw)

e.g.: His mind was alert and people asked him to dinner not for old times’ sake, but because he was worth
his salt.(S.Maugham)

synonymical repetition

the repetition of the same idea by using synonymous words and phrases which by adding a slightly
different nuance of meaning intensify the impact of the utterance (I.R.G.)

e.g.: ... are there not capital punishment sufficient in your statutes? Is there not blood enough upon your
penal code? (Byron)

syntactical level

include <syntactical stylistic devices>, <types of repetition>, <sentence structure>, <types of

connection>, arrangement of sentence members, <completeness of sentence structure>,

syntactical stylistic devices (syntactical SDs)

include: sentence length, <one-word sentences>, <punctuation>, <rhetorical question>, <parallel

construction>, <chiasmus>, <inversion>, <suspense>, <detachment>, <ellipsis>, one-member sentences,
<apokoinu constructions>, <break-in-the-narrative>, <polysyndeton>, <asyndeton>, <attachment>

the tenor (the vehicle)

See: <simile>

terms

<special literary words>, denoting objects, processes, phenomena of science, humanities, technique
(V.A.K)

transference
act of name-exchange, of substitution of the existing names approved by long usage and fixed in
dictionaries by new, occasional, individual ones, prompted by the speaker’s subjective original view and
evaluation of things, for the name of one object is transferred onto another, proceeding from their
similarity (of shape, colour, function, etc.), or closeness (of material existence, cause/effect,
instrument/result, part/whole, etc.) (V.A.K.)

types of connection

include: <polysyndeton>, <asyndeton>, <attachment>

types of repetition

include: <anaphora>, <epiphora>, <framing>, <catch repetition> or <anadiplosis>, <chain repetition>,

<ordinary repetition>, <successive repetition>; <synonymical repetition>

Repetition:

- is a powerful meand of emphasis

- adds rhythm and balance to the utterance

understatement

a <stylistic device> in which emphasis is achieved through intentional underestimation It does not signify
the actual state of affairs in reality, but presents the latter through the emotionally coloured perception
and rendering of the speaker.

e.g.: ”The wind is rather strong” instead of “There’s a gale blowing outside”

e.g.: She wore a pink hat, the size of a button. (J.Reed)

e.g.: About a very small man in the Navy: this new sailor stood five feet nothing in sea boots. (Th.
Pynchon)

verbal irony

a type of <irony> when it is possible to indicate the exact word whose contextual meaning diametrically
opposes its dictionary meaning, in whose meaning we can trace the contradiction between the said and
implied (V.A.K.)

e.g.: She turned with the sweet smile of an alligator. (J.Steinbeck)

e.g.: With all the expressiveness of a stone Welsh stared at him another twenty seconds apparently hoping
to see him gag.(R.Chandler)

e.g.: She’s a charming middle-aged lady with a face like a bucket of mud and if she has washed her hair
since Coolridge’s second term, I’ll eat my spare tire, rim and all. (R.Chandler)

e.g.: Last time it was a nice, simple, European-style war.(I.Shaw)

violation of phraseological units

restoring the literal original meaning of the word, which lost some of its semantic independence and
strength in a phraseological unit or cliché. (A.V.K.)

e.g.: Little John was born with a silver spoon in his mouth which was rather curly and large.
(I.Galsworthy)

e.g.: After a while and a cake he crept nervously to the door of the parlour.(A.Tolkien)

vulgarisms

coarse <special colloquial words> with a strong emotive meaning, mostly derogatory, normally avoided
in polite conversation (V.A.K.)

e.g.: There is so much bad shit between the two gangs that I bet there will be more killings this year.

Source: (V.A.K.)

word

a unit of language functioning within the sentence or within a part of it which by its sound or graphical
form expresses a concrete or abstract notion or a grammatical notion through one of its meanings and
which is capable of enriching its semantic structure by acquiring new meanings and losing old ones
(I.R.G.)

zeugma

a cluster SD, when a polysemantic verb that can be combined with nouns of most varying semantic
groups is deliberately used with two of more homogeneous members, which are not connected
semantically (V.A.K.)

e.g.: He took his hat and his leave. (Ch.Dickens)

e.g.: She went home, in a flood of tears and a sedan chair. (Ch.Dickens)

Part 2

Exercise 1: Indicate the causes and effects of the following cases of alliteration, assonance and
onomatopoeia:

1. Streaked by a quarter moon, the Mediterranean shushed gently into the beach. (I.Shaw)

2. He swallowed the hint with a gulp and a gasp and a grin. (R. Kipling)

3. His wife was shrill, languid, handsome and horrible. (Sc. Fitzgerald)

4. The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

The furrow followed free. (S.T. Coleridge)

5. The Italian trio tut-tutted their tongues at me. (T. Capote)

6. You, lean, long, lanky lath of a lousy bastard! (S. O’Casey)

7. To sit in solemn silence in a dull dark dock,

In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock,

Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock

From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big block. (W. Fr.Collier)

8. Then, with an enormous, shattering rumble, sludge-puff, sludge-puff, the train came into the station.
(A.Saxton)

9. Dreadful young creatures - squealing and squawking. (D. Carter)

10. Here the rain did not fall. It was stopped high above by that roof of green shingles. From there it
dripped down slowly, leaf to leaf, or ran down the stems and branches. Despite the heaviness of the
downpour which now purred loudly in their ears from just outside, here there was only a low rustle of
slow occasional dripping. (J. Jones)

Exercise 2. Indicate the kind of additional information about the speaker supplied by graphon:

1. "Oh, that's it, is it?" said Sam. "I was afeerd, from his manner, that he might ha' forgotten to take
pepper with that 'ere last cowcumber he et. Set down, sir, ve make no extra charge for the settin' down, as
the king remarked when he blowed up his ministers." (Ch. Dickens)

2. "Well, I dunno. I'll show you summat." (St. Barstow)

3. "De old Foolosopher, like Hickey calls yuh, ain't yuh?" (E. O’Neil)

4. "I had a coach with a little seat in fwont with an iwon wail for the dwiver." 6 (Ch. Dickens)

5. "The Count," explained the German officer, "expegs you chentlemen at eight-dirty." (C. Holmes)

6. “My daddy’s coming tomorrow on a nairplane”. (J.D. Salinger)

7. After a hum a beautiful Negress sings “Without a song, the dahay would nehever end”. (J. Updike)

Exercise 3. State the functions and the type of the following graphical expressive means:

1. Kiddies and grown-ups too-oo-oo

We haven't enough to do-oo-oo. (R. Kipling)

2. "When Will's ma was down here keeping house for him-she used to run in to see me, real often."(S.
Lewis)

3. He missed our father very much. He was s-l-a-i-n in North Africa. (J.D. Salinger)

4. “We’ll teach the children to look at the things. Don’t let the world pass you by, I would tell them. For
the sun, I shall say, open your eyes for that laaaarge sun…” (A. Wesker)

5. “Now listen, Ed, stop that now. I’m desperate. I am desperate, Ed, do you hear?” (Th. Dreiser)

6. “Adieu you, old man. I pityyou, and I de-spise you” (Ch. Dickens)
7. “ALL our troubles are over, old girl,” he said fondly. “We can put a bit by now for a rainy day”. (S.
Maugham)

Exercise 4. State the function of the following cases of morphemic repetition:

1. She unchained, unbolted and unlocked the door.(A. Bennett)

2. It was there again, more clearly than before: the terrible expression of pain in her eyes; unblinking,
unaccepting, unbelieving pain. (D. Uhnak)

3. We were sitting in the cheapest of all the cheap restaurants that cheapen that very cheap and noisy
street, the Rue des Petits Champs in Paris. (E. Hemingway)

4. Laughing, crying, cheering, chaffing, singing, David Rossi's people brought him home in triumph. (H.
Caine)

5. The procession then re-formed; the chairmen resumed their stations, and the march was recommenced.
(Ch. Dickens)

6. We are overbrave and overfearful, overfriendly and at the same time frightened of strangers, we're
oversentimental and realistic. (P. Strevens)

7. She was a lone spectator, but never a lonely one, because the warmth of company was unnecessary to
her. (P.Cheyney)

8. He wished she would not look at him in this new way. For things were changing, something was
changing now, this minute, just when he thought they would never change again, just when he found a
way to live in that changelessness. (R.P. Warren)

9. "Sit down, you dancing, prancing, shambling, scrambling fool parrot! Sit down!" (Ch. Dickens)

Exercise 5. Analyze the morphemic structure and the purpose of creating the occasional words:

1. The girls could not take off their panama hats because this was not far from the school gates and
hatlessness was an offence.

2 David, in his new grown-upness, had already a sort of authority. (I. Murdoch)

3. That fact had all the unbelievableness of the sudden wound. (R.P. Warren)

4. Suddenly he felt a horror of her otherness. (J. Badwin)

5. Lucy wasn't Willie's luck. Or his unluck either. (R.P. Warren)

6. He looked pretty good for a fifty-four-year-old former college athlete who for years had overindulged
and underexercized. (D. Uhnak)

7. She was a young and unbeautiful woman. (I. Shaw)

8. The descriptions were of two unextraordinary boys: three and a half and six years old. (D. Uhnak)

9. "Mr. Hamilton, you haven't any children, have you?" "Well, no. And I'm sorry about that, I guess. I am
sorriest about that." (J.Steinbeck)

10. "To think that I should have lived to be good-morninged by Belladonna Took's son!" (A. Tolkien)
Exercise 6. Discuss the following cases of morphemic foregrounding:

1. The District Attorney's office was not only panelled, draped and carpeted, it was also chandeliered with
a huge brass affair hanging from the center of the ceiling. (D. Uhnak)

2. I gave myself the once-over in the bathroom mirror: freshly shaved, clean-shirted, dark-suited and
neck-tied. (D. Uhnak)

3. Well, a kept woman is somebody who is perfumed, and clothed, and wined, and dined, and sometimes
romanced heavily. (J.Carson)

4. The loneliness would suddenly overcome you like lostness and too-lateness, and a grief you had no
name for. (R.P. Warren)

5. I came here determined not be angry, or weepy, or preachy. (J. Updike)

6. Militant feminists grumble that history is exactly what it says – His-story – and not Her-story at all. (D.
Barthelme)

7. "I love you mucher." "Plently mucher? Me tooer." (J. Braine)

8. "I'm going to build me the God-damnedest, biggest, chromium-platedest, formaldehyde-stinkingest free

hospital and health center." (R.P. Warren)

9. So: I'm not just talented. I'm geniused. (Sh. Delaney)

10. "Ready?" said the old gentleman, inquiringly, when his guests had been washed, mended, brushed,
and brandied. (Ch. Dickens)

Exercise 7. State the type and function of literary words in the following examples:

1. "I must decline to pursue this painful discussion. It is not pleasant to my feelings; it is repugnant to my
feelings." (Ch. Dickens)

2. "I am not in favour of this modern mania for turning bad people into good people at a moment's notice.
As a man sows so let him reap." (O. Wilde)

3. Isolde the Slender had suitors in plenty to do her lightest hest. Feats of arms were done daily for her
sake. To win her love suitors were willing to vow themselves to perdition. But Isolde the Slender was
heedless of the court thus paid to her. (St. Leacock)

4. "He of the iron garment," said Daigety, entering, "is bounden unto you, MacEagh, and this noble lord
shall be bounden also."(W. Scott)

5. If manners maketh man, then manner and groorning maketh poodle. (J.Steinbeck)

6. "They're real!" he murmured. "My God, they are absolutely real!" Erik turned. "Didn't you believe that
the neutron existed?" "Oh, I believed," Fabermacher shrugged away the praise. "To me neutrons were
symbols n with a mass of mn = 1.008. But until now I never saw them." (M. Wilson)

7. Riding back I saw the Greeks lined up in column of march. They were all still there. Also, all armed.
On long marches when no action threatened, they had always piled their armour, helmets and weapons in
their carts, keeping only their swords; wearing their short tunics (made from all kinds of stuff, they had
been so long from home) and the wide straw hats Greeks travel in, their skins being tender to sun. Now
they had on corselets or cuirasses, helmets, even grades if they owned them, and their round shields hung
at their backs. (M. Renault)

8. Into the organpipes and steeples

Of the luminous cathedrals,

Into the weathercocks' molten mouths

Rippling in twelve-winded circles,

Into the dead clock burning the hour

Over the urn of sabbaths...

Erupt, fountain, and enter to utter for ever

Glory glory glory

The sundering ultimate kingdom of genesis' thunder. (D.Thomas)

Exercise 8. Think of the type of additional information about the speaker or communicative
situation conveyed by the following general and special colloquial words:

1. "She's engaged. Nice guy, too. Though there's a slight difference in height. I'd say a foot, her favor."
(T.Capote)

2. I didn't really do anything this time. Just pulled the dago out of the river. Like all dagos, he couldn't
swim. Well, the fellow was sort of grateful about it. Hung around like a dog. About six months later he
died of fever. I was with him. Last thing, just as he was pegging out, he beckoned me and whispered
some excited jargon about a secret. (A.Christie)

3. "Here we are now," she cried, returning with the tray. "And don't look so miz." (J.B. Priestley)

4. Going down the stairs he overheard one beanied freshman he knew talking to another. "Did you see
that black cat with the black whiskers who had those binocks in front of us? That's my comp prof."
(B.M.)

5. "All those medical bastards should go through the ops they put other people through. Then they
wouldn't talk so much bloody nonsense or be so damnably unutterably smug." (D.Cusack)

6. "I thought of going to the flicks," she said. "Or we could go for a walk if it keeps fine."(J. Braine)

7. There was a fearful mess in the room, and piles of unwashed crocks in the kitchen. (A. Tolkien)

8. "Don't wanna sleep, Don't wanna die, just wanna go a-travelin' through the pastures of the sky." (T.
Capote)

Exercise 9. Compare the neutral and the colloquial (or literary) modes of expression:

1. "Also it will cost him a hundred bucks as a retainer."

"Huh?" Suspicious again. Stick to basic English.

"Hundred dollars," I said. "Iron men. Fish. Bucks to the number of one hundred. Me no money, me no
come. Savvy?"

I began to count a hundred with both hands. (R. Chandler)

2."...some thief in the night boosted my clothes whilst I slept. I sleep awful sound on the mattresses you
have here."

"Somebody boosted...?"

"Pinched. Jobbed. Swiped. Stole," he says happily. (K. Kesey)

3. "Do you talk?" asked Bundle. "Or are you just strong and silent?"

"Talk?" said Anthony. "I babble. I murmur. I burble – like a running brook, you know. Sometimes I even
ask questions." (A. Christie)

4. "So you'll both come to dinner? Eight fifteen. Dinny, we must be back to lunch. Swallows," added
Lady Mont round the brim of her hat and passed out through the porch.

"There's a house-party," said Dinny to the young man’s elevated eyebrows. "She means tails and a white
tie." "Oh! Ah! Best bib and tucker, Jean." (J. Galsworthy)

5. "The only thing that counts in his eyes is solid achievement. Sometimes I have been prostrate with
fatigue. He calls it idleness. I need the stimulation of good company. He terms this riff-raff. The plain fact
is, I am misunderstood." (D. du Maurier)

6. "The scheme I would suggest cannot fail of success, but it has what may seem to you a drawback, sir,
in that it requires a certain financial outlay."

"He means," I translated to Corky, "that he has a pippin of an idea but it's going to cost a bit."
(P.G.Wodehouse)

7. Mrs. Sunbury never went to bed – she retired, but Mr. Sunbury who was not quite so refined as his
wife always said: "Me for Bedford." (S. Maugham)

Exercise 10. Analyse the given cases of metaphor from all sides – semantics, originality,
expressiveness.

1. The fountain of knowledge will dry up unless it is continuously replenished by streams of new
learning.

2. I was staring directly in front of me, at the back of the driver's neck, which was a relief map of boil
scars. (J.D. Salinger)

3. She was handsome in a rather leonine way. Where this girl was a lioness, the other was a panther-lithe
and quick. (A. Christie)

4. His voice was a dagger of corroded brass. (S. Lewis)

5. What sort of a monster then is man? What a novelty, what a portent, what a chaos, what a mass of
contradictions, what a prodigy! Judge of all things, a ridiculous earthworm who is the repository of truth,
a sink of uncertainty and error; the glory and the scum of the world. --Blaise Pascal

6. He felt the first watery eggs of sweat moistening the palms of his hands. (W. Sansom)
7. The man stood there in the middle of the street with the deserted dawnlit boulevard telescoping out
behind him. (T. Howard)

8. The angry clouds in the hateful sky cruelly spat down on the poor man who had forgotten his umbrella.

9. Leaving Daniel to his fate, she was conscious of joy springing in her heart. (A. Bennett)

10. He smelled the ever-beautiful smell of coffee imprisoned in the can. (J. Steinbeck)

11. The little old lady turtled along at ten miles per hour.

12. They walked along, two continents of experience and feeling, unable to communicate. (W.S. Gilbert)

13. He had hoped that Sally would laugh at this, and she did, and in a sudden mutual gush they cashed
into the silver of laughter all the sad secrets they could find in their pockets. (J. Updike)

14. She typed the paper machine-gunnedly, without pausing at all.

15. This coffee is strong enough to get up and walk away.

Exercise 11. Indicate metonymies and synecdoche, state the type of relations between the objects.

1. He went about her room, after his introduction, looking at her pictures, her bronzes and clays, asking
after the creator of this, the painter of that, where a third thing came from. (Th. Dreiser)

2. She saw around her, clustered about the white tables, multitudes of violently red lips, powdered cheeks,
cold, hard eyes, self-possessed arrogant faces, and insolent bosoms. (A. Bennett)

3. Dinah, a slim, fresh, pale eighteen, was pliant and yet fragile. (C. Holmes)

4. The army included two hundred horse and three hundred foot.

5. "It was easier to assume a character without having to tell too many lies and you brought a fresh eye
and mind to the job." (J.B. Priestley)

6. Boy, I'm dying from the heat. Just look how the mercury is rising.

7. "Some remarkable pictures in this room, gentlemen. A Holbein, two Van Dycks and if I am not
mistaken, a Velasquez. I am interested in pictures." (A. Christie)

8. There you are at your tricks again. The rest of them do earn their bread; you live on my charity. (E.
Bronte)

9.There sits my animal guarding the door to the henhouse.

10. The praise was enthusiastic enough to have delighted any common writer who earns his living by his
pen. (S. Maugham)

11. A major lesson Americans need to learn is that life consists of more than cars and television sets

12. He made his way through the perfume and conversation. (I. Shaw)

13. His mind was alert and people asked him to dinner not for old times' sake, but because he was worth
his salt. (S. Maugham)
Exercise 12. Match each metonymic linguistic expressions with the conceptual metonymy from
Column 2 which it most closely matches. FOR #18, formulate a conceptual metonymy and provide a
translation.

The first one is done for you: The thief knifed the cashier. O. INSTRUMENT OR OBJECT USED
STANDS FOR THE ACTION IT IS EMPLOYED FOR

Metonymic Linguistic Expressions( Conceptual Metonymy Types

1. The thief knifed the cashier.

2. What a coincidence--both the tuba and the saxophone

have called in sick for band practice! A. THE PART STANDS FOR THE WHOLE

3. They elbowed their way through the crowd. B. PRODUCER STANDS FOR PRODUCT

4. The Governor of Texas executed yet another murderer
today.
5. I read a lot of Melville in high school.
6. My Mom talks about Woodstock as though it happened
yesterday.
7. Are Nikes really better than other athletic shoes?
C. AUTHOR STANDS FOR WORK
D. THE PLACE STANDS FOR THE EVENT
E. THE PLACE STANDS FOR THE
INSTITUTION LOCATED AT THAT PLACE
F. THE INSTITUTION STANDS FOR THE
PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ACTION

8.Yo, Bill, this lady needs her oil changed! H. OBJECT USED STANDS FOR USER

9. We'll need several strong backs to lift this fountain! I. THE ORDERED ITEM STANDS FOR THE
CUSTOMER
10.I've asked you a million times, please don't butter my
toast! J. PRODUCER STANDS FOR PRODUCT

11. (One car mechanic to another, out of earshot of K. MANNER OF ACTION STANDS FOR THE
customers:) Bob, which guy is the Cadillac and which is ACTION
the Jaguar?
L. AGENT STANDS FOR THE ACTION
12.The White House is bullish on tax cuts.
M. POSSESSOR STANDS FOR THE THING
13.You shouldn't go nosing around in people's closets and POSSESSED
drawers when you're house-sitting.
N. THE POSSESSED ITEM STANDS FOR
14.Fish & Wildlife have forbidden dogs on Morro Strand. THE POSSESSOR

15. Susie quit the band? I guess we're gonna need a new O. INSTRUMENT OR OBJECT USED
bass guitar. STANDS FOR THE ACTION IT IS
EMPLOYED FOR
16.Did you remember to water the orchids?

17.I can't decide whether to buy Armani or Ralph Lauren.

18.9/11 will never be forgotten.

Exercise 13. Analyse various cases of play on words, indicating which type is used.

1. After a while and a cake he crept nervously to the door of the parlour. (A.Tolkien)
2. Dorothy, at my statement, had clapped her hand over mouth to hold down laughter and chewing gum.
(J. Barth)

3. When I am dead, I hope it may be said: "His sins were scarlet, but his books were read." (H. Belloc)

4. Most women up London nowadays seem to furnish their rooms with nothing but orchids, foreigners
and French novels. (O. Wilde)

5. "He took my advice and my wallet"

6. Never let a fool kiss you, or a kiss fool you

7. "Someone at the door," he said, blinking. "Some four, I should say by the sound," said Fili. (A.
Tolkien)

8. Babbitt respected bigness in anything: in mountains, jewels, muscles, wealth or words. (S. Lewis)

9. My mother was wearing her best grey dress and gold brooch and a faint pink flush under each cheek
bone. (W. S. Gilbert)

10. "There is only one brand of tobacco allowed here-'Three nuns'. None today, none tomorrow, and none
the day after." (Br. Behan)

11. Seven days without laughter makes one weak

12. "Good morning," said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining and the grass was very green. (A.
Tolkien)

Exercise 14. Explain what conditions made the realization of verbal irony possible.

1. "I had a plot, a scheme, a little quiet piece of enjoyment afoot, of which the very cream and essence
was that this old man and grandchild should be as poor as frozen rats," and Mr. Brass revealed the whole
story, making himself out to be rather a saintlike holy character. (Ch. Dickens)

2. "She's a charming middle-aged lady with a face like a bucket of mud and if she has washed her hair
since Coolidge's second term, I'll eat my spare tire, rim and all." (R. Chandler)

3. Sonny Grosso was a worrier who looked for and frequently managed to find, the dark side of most
situations. (P. la Murre)

4. It was a cool 115 degrees in the shade.

5. Last time it was a nice, simple, European-style war. (I. Shaw)

6. But every Englishman is born with a certain miraculous power that makes him master of the world. As
the great champion of freedom and national independence he conquers and annexes half the world and
calls it Colonization. (B. Shaw)

7. I was simply overjoyed at the thought of having to leave my guy and return to school for finals.

Exercise 15. Analyse the following cases of antonomasia.

1. A stout middle-aged man, with enormous owl-eyed spectacles, was sitting... on the edge of a great
table. I turned to him. "Don't ask me," said Mr. Owl Eyes washing his hands of the whole matter. (Sc.
Fitzerald)
2. You think your boyfriend is tight? I had a date with Scrooge himself last night!

3. I keep six honest serving-men

(They taught me all I know);

Their names are What and Why and When

And How and Where and Who. (R. Kipling)

4. "Her mother is perfectly unbearable. Never met such a Gorgon."

"I don't really know what a Gorgon is like, but I am quite sure, that Lady Bracknell is one. In any case,
she is a monster without being a myth." (O. Wilde)

5. We all must realize that Uncle Sam is not supposed to be Santa Claus.

6. In the moon-landing year what choice is there for Mr. and Mrs. Average-the programme against
poverty or the ambitious NASA project?

7. The next speaker was a tall gloomy man. Sir Something Somebody. (J.B. Priestly)

8. We sat down at a table with two girls in yellow and three men, each one introduced to us as Mr.
Mumble. (Sc. Fitzerald)

9. She's been in a bedroom with one of the young Italians, Count Something. (I. Shaw)

Exercise 16. Discuss the structure and semantics of epithets in the following examples:

1. He has that unmistakable tall lanky "rangy" loose-jointed graceful close-cropped formidably clean
American look. (I. Murdoch)

2. He's a proud, haughty, consequential, turned-nosed peacock. (Ch. Dickens)

3. The Fascisti, or extreme Nationalists, which means black-shirted, knife-carrying, club-swinging, quick-
stepping, nineteen-year-old-pot-shot patriots, have worn out their welcome in Italy. (E. Hemingway)

4. She has taken to wearing heavy blue bulky shapeless quilted People's Volunteers trousers rather than
the tight tremendous how-the-West-was-won trousers she formerly wore. (D. Barthelme)

5. Harrison - a fine, muscular, sun-bronzed, gentle-eyed, patrician-nosed, steak-fed, Oilman-Schooled,

soft-spoken, well-tailored aristocrat was an out-and-out leaflet-writing revolutionary at the time. (J.
Barth)

6. Her painful shoes slipped off. (J. Updike)

7. She was a faded white rabbit of a woman. (A. Cronin)

8. And she still has that look, that don't-you-touch-me look, that women who were beautiful carry with
them to the grave. (J. Balswin)

9. Ten-thirty is a dark hour in a town where respectable doors are locked at nine. (T. Capote)

10. He loved the afterswim salt-and-sunshine smell of her hair. (J. Barth)
11. "Thief!" Pilon shouted. "Dirty pig of an untrue friend!" (J. Steinbeck)

12. He acknowledged an early-afternoon customer with a be-with-you-in-a-minute nod. (D. Uhnak)

13. There was none of the Old-fashioned Five-Four-Three-Two-One-Zero business, so tough on the
human nervous system. (A. Clarke)

14. The children were very brown and filthily dirty. (V. Woolfe)

Exercise 17. In the following examples concentrate on cases of hyperbole and understatement.

1. I was scared to death when he entered the room. (J.D. Salinger)

2. The girls were dressed to kill. (J. Braine)

3. Newspapers are the organs of individual men who have jockeyed themselves to be party leaders, in
countries where a new party is born every hour over a glass of beer in the nearest cafe. (J. Reed)

4. I was violently sympathetic, as usual. (J. Barth)

5. The car which picked me up on that particular guilty evening was a Cadillac limousine about seventy-
three blocks long. (J. Baldwin)

6. Her family is one aunt about a thousand years old. (Sc. Fitzerald)

7. He didn't appear like the same man; then he was all milk and honey-now he was all starch and vinegar.
(Ch. Dickens)

9. She was a giant of a woman. Her bulging figure was encased in a green егере dress and her feet
overflowed in red shoes. She carried a mammoth red pocketbook that bulged throughout as if it were
stuffed with rocks. (Fl. O'Connor)

10, The little woman, for she was of pocket size, crossed her hands solemnly 'on her middle. (J.
Galsworthy)

11. We danced on the handkerchief-big space between the speak-easy tables. (R. P. Warren)

12. She wore a pink hat, the size of a button. (J. Reed)

13. She was a sparrow of a woman. (Ph. Larkin)

14. He smiled back, breathing a memory of gin at me. (W. Gilbert)

Exercise 18. In the following sentences pay attention to the structure and semantics of oxymoron.

1. He caught a ride home to the crowded loneliness of the barracks. (J. Jones)

2. Sprinting towards the elevator he felt amazed at his own cowardly courage. (G. Markey)

3. They were a bloody miserable lot – the miserablest lot of men I ever saw. But they were good to me.
Bloody good. (J. Steunbeck)

4. He behaved pretty lousily to Jan. (D. Cusack)

5. Well might he perceive the hanging of her hair in fairest quantity in locks, some curled and some as if
it were forgotten, with such a careless care and an art so hiding art that she seemed she would lay them
for a pattern. (Ph. Sydney)

6. There were some bookcases of superbly unreadable books. (E. Waugh)

7. A neon sign reads "Welcome to Reno – the biggest little town in the world." (A. Miller)

8. Huck Finn and Holden Caulfield are Good Bad Boys of American literature. (G.H. Vallins)

18. He opened up a wooden garage. The doors creaked. The garage was full of nothing. (R. Chandler)

9. A very likeable young man with a pleasantly ugly face. (A. Cronin)

11. The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read, / With loads of learned lumber in his head . . . .--Alexander
Pope

Exercise 19. Pay attention to the stylistic function of various lexical expressive means used
individually and in convergence:

1. Constantinople is noisy, hot, hilly, dirty and beautiful. It is packed with uniforms and rumors. (E.
Hemingway)

2. Across the street a bingo parlour was going full blast: the voice of the hot dog merchant split the dusk
like an axe. The big blue blared down the street. (R. Chandler)

3. For me the work of Gertrude Stein consists in a rebuilding, an entire new recasting of life, in the city of
words. Here is one artist who has been able to accept ridicule, to go live among the little housekeeping
words, the swaggering bullying street-comer words, the honest working, money-saving words, and all the
other forgotten and neglected citizens of the sacred and half forgotten city. (Sh. Anderson)

4. Only a couple of the remaining fighters began to attack the bombers. On they all came, slowly getting
larger. The tiny mosquitoes dipped and swirled and dived in a mad, whirling dance around the heavier,
stolid horseflies, who nevertheless kept serenely and sedately on. (J. Jones)

5. An enormous grand piano grinned savagely at the curtains as if it would grab them, given the chance.
(W. Golding.)

6. Duffy was face to face with the margin of mystery where all our calculations collapse, where the
stream of time dwindles into the sands of eternity, where the formula fails in the test-tube, where chaos
and old night hold sway and we hear the laughter in the ether dream. (R. P. Warren)

7. The fog comes on little cat feet.

It sits looking over harbor and city

on silent haunches

and then moves on. (K. Sandburg)

8. On that little pond the leaves floated in peace and praised Heaven with their hues, the sunlight haunting
over them. (A. Galsworthy)

9. It was a relief not to have to machete my way through a jungle of what-are-you-talking-aboutery before
I could get at him. (J. Aldridge)
10. Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice,

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice. (R. Frost)

11. Outside the narrow street fumed, the sidewalks swarmed with fat stomachs. (J. Reed)

12. The owner, now at the wheel, was the essence of decent self-satisfaction; a baldish, largish, level-eyed
man, rugged of neck but sleek and round of face – face like the back of a spoon bowl. (S. Lewis)

13. His fingertips seemed to caress the wheel as he nursed it over the dark winding roads at a mere
whispering sixty. (L. Charteris)

14. We plunged in and out of sun and shadow-pools, and joy, a glad-to-be-alive exhilaration, jolted
through me like a jigger of nitrogen. (T. Capote)

15. These jingling toys in his pocket were of eternal importance like baseball or Republican Party. (S.
Lewis)

Exercise 20. Comment on different types of repetition, parallelism and chiasmus.

1. He labors without complaining and without bragging rests.

2. "To think better of it," returned the gallant Blandois, "would be to slight a lady, to slight a lady would
be to be deficient in chivalry towards the sex, and chivalry towards the sex is a part of my character." (Ch.
Dickens)

3. In books I find the dead as if they were alive; in books I foresee things to come; in books warlike
affairs are set forth; from books come forth the laws of peace. (Richard de Bury)

4. To report that your committee is still investigating the matter is to tell me that you have nothing to
report.

5. Tell me not of your many perfections; of your great modesty tell me not either.

6. I might as well face facts: good-bye, Susan, good-bye a big car, good-bye a big house, good-bye
power,, good-bye the silly handsome dreams. (J.Braine)

7.Water alone dug this giant canyon; yes, just plain water.

8. Those gallant men will remain often in my thoughts and in my prayers always.
9. I wanted to knock over the table and hit him until my arm had no more strength in it, then give him the
boot, give him the boot, give him the boot – I drew a deep breath. (J. Braine)

10. Not time, not money, not laws, but willing diligence will get this done.

11. Ferocious dragons breathing fire and wicked sorcerers casting their spells do their harm by night in
the forest of Darkness.

12. She stopped, and seemed to catch the distant sound of knocking. Abandoning the traveller, she hurried
towards the parlour, in the passage she assuredly did hear knocking, angry and impatient knocking, the
knocking of someone who thinks he has knocked too long. (A. Bennett)

13. "Some have an idea that the reason we in this country discard things so readily is because we have so
much. The facts are exactly opposite – the reason we have so much is simply because we discard things
so readily." (Alfred P. Sloan)

14. He ran away from the battle. He was an ordinary human being that didn't want to kill or be killed. So
he ran away from the battle. (St. Heaney)

15. Living is the art of loving. Loving is the art of caring. Caring is the art of sharing. Sharing is the art of
living. (W. H. Davies)

16. He went to the country and to the town went she.

17. If you know anything that is not known to others, if you have any suspicion, if you have any clue at
all, and any reason for keeping it in your own breast, ...think of me, and conquer that reason and let it be
known!

18. I notice that father's is a large hand, but never a heavy one when it touches me, and that father's is a
rough voice but never an angry one when it speaks to me. (Ch. Dickens)

19. From the offers of marriage that fell to her, Dona Clara, deliberately, chose the one that required her
removal to Spain. So to Spain she went. (O. Wilde)

20. There lives at least one being who can never change – one being who would be content to devote his
whole existence to your happiness – who lives but in your eyes – who breathes but in your smile – who
bears the heavy burden of life itself only for you. (Ch. Dickens)

Exercise 21. Find and analyse cases of detachment, suspense and inversion.

1. She narrowed her eyes a trifle at me and said I looked exactly like Celia Briganza's boy. Around the
mouth. (J.D. Sakinger)

2. He observes it all with a keen quick glance, not unkindly, and full rather of amusement than of censure.
(V. Woolfe)

3. She was crazy about you. In the beginning. (R. P. Warren)

4. She had a personality indescribable.

5. The helmsman steered; the ship moved on; yet never a breeze up blew. (S. T. Coleridge)

6. How many pictures of new journeys over pleasant country, of resting places under the free broad sky,
of rambles in the fields and woods, and paths not often trodden – how many tones of that one well
-remembered voice, how many glimpses of the form, the fluttering dress, the hair that waved so gaily in
the wind – how many visions of what had been and what he hoped was yet to be-rose up before him in the
old, dull, silent church! (Ch. Dickens)

7. But the new calculations – and here we see the value of relying upon up-to-date information – showed
that man-powered flight was possible with this design.

8. It was not the monotonous days uncheckered by variety and uncheered by pleasant companionship, it
was not the dark dreary evenings or the long solitary nights, it was not the absence of every slight and
easy pleasure for which young hearts beat high or the knowing nothing of childhood but its weakness and
its easily wounded spirit, that had wrung such tears from Nell. (Ch. Dickens)

9. Of all my old association, of all my old pursuits and hopes, of all the living and the dead world, this
one poor soul alone comes natural to me. (Ch. Dickens)

10. I have been accused of bad taste. This has disturbed me not so much for my own sake (since I am
used to

the slights and arrows of outrageous fortune) as for the sake of criticism in general. (S. Maugham)

11. On, on he wandered, night and day, beneath the blazing sun, and the cold pale moon; through the dry
heat of noon, and the damp cold of night; in the grey light of morn, and the red glare of eve. (Ch.
Dickens)

12. Benny Collan, a respected guy, Benny Collan wants to marry her. An agent could ask for more? (T.
Capote)

13. Women are not made for attack. Wail they must. (J. Conrad)

14. Out came the chase – in went the horses – on sprang the boys – in got the travellers. (Ch. Dickens)

Exercise 22. Discuss different types of stylistic devices dealing with the completeness of the
sentence:

1. In manner, close and dry. In voice, husky and low. In face, watchful behind a blind. (Ch/ Dickens)

2. Malay Camp. A row of streets crossing another row of streets. Mostly narrow streets. Mostly dirty
streets. Mostly dark streets. (P.Abrahams)

3. His forehead was narrow, his face wide, his head large, and his nose all on one side. (Ch. Dickens)

4. He, and the falling light and dying fire, the time-worn room, the solitude, the wasted life, and gloom,
were all in fellowship. Ashes, and dust, and ruin! (Ch. Dickens)

5. She merely looked at him weakly. The wonder of him! The beauty of love! Her desire toward him!
(Th. Dreiser)

6. I'm a horse doctor, animal man. Do some farming, too. Near Tulip, Texas. (T. Capote)

7. "People liked to be with her. And - " She paused again, "- and she was crazy about you." (R.P. Warren)

8. What I had seen of Patti didn't really contradict Kitty's view of her: a girl who means well, but.
(D.Uhnak)

9. He was shouting out that he'd come back, that his mother had better have the money ready for him. Or
else! That is what he said: “Or else…" It was a threat. (A. Christie)
10. I told her, "You've always acted the free woman, you've never let any thing stop you from – " (He
checks himself, goes on hurriedly). "That made her sore." (J. O’Hara)

11. And it was unlikely that anyone would trouble to look there - until - until - well… (Th. Dreiser)

Exercise 23. Specify stylistic functions of the types of connection given below:

1. Then from the town pour men and women in trousers and rubber coats and oilcloth aprons. They come
running to clean and cut and pack and cook and can the fish. The whole street rumbles and groans and
screams and rattles while the silver rivers of fish pour in out of the boats and the boats rise higher and
higher in the water until they are empty. (J. Steinbeck)

2. I came, I saw, I conquered.

3. By the time he had got all the bottles and dishes and knives and forks and glasses and plates and spoons
and things piled up on big trays, he was getting very hot, and red in the face, and annoyed. (A. Tolkien)

4. On his return he received medals, honors, treasures, titles, fame.

5. The infantry plodded foward, the tanks rattled into position, the big guns swung their snouts toward the
rim of the hills, the planes raked the underbrush with gunfire

6. I said, "Who killed him?" and he said, "I don't know who killed him but he's dead all right," and it was
dark and there was water standing in the street and no lights and windows broke and boats all up in the
town and trees blown down and I got a skiff and went out and found my boat... (E. Hemingway)

7. "Give me an example," I said quietly. "Of something that means something. In your opinion." (T.
Capote)

8. "I got a small apartment over the place. And, well. sometimes I stay over. In the apartment. Like the
last few nights." (D. Uhnak)

9. "He is a very deliberate, careful guy and we trust each other completely. With a few reservations." (D.
Uhnak)

Exercise 24. Discuss the semantic centres and structural peculiarities of antithesis:

1. Mrs. Nork had a large home and a small husband. (S. Lewis)

2. Don't use big words. They mean so little. (O. Wilde)

3. I like big parties. They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy. (Sc. Fitzerald)

4. There is Mr. Guppy, who was at first as open as the sun at noon, but who suddenly shut up as
close as midnight. (Ch. Dickens)

5. Such a scene as there was when Kit came in! Such a confusion of tongues, before the
circumstances were related, and the proofs disclosed! Such a dead silence when all was told!
(Ch. Dickens)

6. Rup wished he could be swift, accurate, compassionate and stern instead of clumsy and vague
and sentimental. (I. Murdoch)
7. There was something eery about the apartment house, an unearthly quiet that was a
combination of overcarpeting and underoccupancy. (H. Stezar)

8. It is safer to be married to the man you can be happy with than to the man you cannot be
happy without. (Y. Esar)
9. Then came running down stairs a gentleman with whiskers, out of breath. (Ch. Dickens)

Exercise 25. Indicate the type of climax.

1. "Is it shark?" said Brody. The possibility that he at last was going to confront the fish - the
beast, the monster, the nightmare - made Brody's heart pound. (P.Benchley)

2. We were all in all to one another, it was the morning of life, it was bliss, it was frenzy, it was
everything else of that sort in the highest degree. (Ch. Dickens)

3. Like a well, like a vault, like a tomb, the prison had no knowledge of the brightness outside.
(Ch. Dickens)

4. "Of course it's important. Incredibly, urgently, desperately important." (D.Sayers)

5. It shreds the nerves, it vivisects the psyche--and it may even scare the living daylights out of more than
a few play goers. (A review in Time, January 7, 1966)

6. "I never told you about that letter Jane Crofut got from her minister when she was sick. He
wrote Jane a letter and on the envelope the address was. like this: Jane Crofut; The Crofut Farm;
Grover's Corners; Sutton County; New Hampshire; United States of America." "What's funny
about it?" "But listen, it's not finished: the United States of America; Continent of North
America; Western Hemisphere; the Earth; the Solar System; the Universe; the Mind of God-
that's what it said on the envelope." (Th.Wilder)

7. For that one instant there was no one else in the room, in the house, in the world, besides
themselves. (M.Wilson)

8.Fledgeby hasn't heard of anything. "No, there's not a word of news," says Lammie. "Not a
particle," adds Boots. "Not an atom," chimes in Brewer. (Ch. Dickens)

9. This was appalling - and soon forgotten. (J. Galsworthy)

10. He was unconsolable - for an afternoon. (J. Galsworthy)

11. In moments of utter crises my nerves act in the most extraordinary way. When utter disaster
seems imminent my whole being is simultaneously braced to avoid it. I size up the situation in a
flash, set my teeth, contract my muscles, take a firm grip of myself, and without a tremor always
do the wrong thing."(B. Shaw)

Exercise 26. Discuss the following cases of simile.

1. The menu was rather less than a panorama, indeed, it was as repetitious as a snore. (O. Nash)

2. The topic of the Younger Generation spread through the company like a yawn. ,(E. Waugh)

3. As wet as a fish, as dry as a bone;

As live as a bird - as dead as a stone;

As plump as a partridge - as crafty as a rat;

As strong as a horse - as weak as a cat. (O. Nash)

4. She has always been as live as a bird. (R. Chandler)

5. She was obstinate as a mule, always had been from a child. ( J. Galsworthy)

6. Children! Breakfast is just as good as any other meal and I won't have you gobbling like wolves. (Th.
Wilder)

7. Six o'clock still found him in indecision. He had had no appetite for lunch and the muscles of his
stomach fluttered as though a flock of sparrows was beating their wings against his insides. (R. Wright)

8. You could have knocked me down with a feather when he said all those things to me. I felt just like
Balaam when his ass broke into light conversation. (S. Maugham)

9. Two footmen leant against the walls looking as waxen as the clumps of flowers sent up that morning
from hothouses in the country. (E. Waugh)

10. It was an unforgettable face, and a tragic face. Its sorrow welled out of it as purely, naturally and
unstoppably as water out of a woodland spring. (J. Fowles)

11. There was no moon, a clear dark, like some velvety garment, was wrapped around the trees, whose
thinned branches, resembling plumes, stirred in the still, warm air. ( J. Galsworthy)

12. On the wall hung an amateur oil painting of what appeared to be a blind man's conception of fourteen
whistling swan landing simultaneously in the Atlantic during a half-gale. (J. Barth)

Exercise 27. Analyse the structure, the semantics and the functions of litotes:

1. "To be a good actress, she must always work for the truth in what she's playing," the man said in a
voice not empty of selflove. (N. Mailer)

2. It was not unnatural if Gilbert felt a certain embarrassment. (E. Waugh)

3. The idea was not totally erroneous. The thought did not displease ms. (I. Murdoch)

4. I was quiet, but not uncommunicative; reserved, bin not reclusive; energetic at times, but seldom
enthusiastic. (J. Barth)

5. He had all the confidence in the world, and not without reason. (J. O'Hara)

6. Kirsten said not without dignity: "Too much talking is unwise." (A. Christie)

7. No, I’ve had a profession and then a firm to cherish," said Ravenstreet, not without bitterness. (P.)

8. I felt I wouldn't say "no" to a cup of tea. (K. Mansfield)

9. I wouldn't say "no" to going to the movies. (E. Waugh)

10. "I don't think you've been too miserable, my dear." (J.B. Priestley)
11. Still two weeks of success is definitely not nothing and phone calls were coming in from agents for a
week. (Ph. Roth)

Exercise 28. Analyse the given periphrases from the viewpoint of their semantic type, structure,
function and originality.

1. His face was red, the back of his neck overflowed his collar and there had recently been published a
second edition of his chin. (P. G. Wodehouse)

2. He would make some money and then he would come back and marry his dream from Blackwood. (Th.
Dreiser)

3. The villages were full of women who did nothing but fight against dirt and hunger and repair the
effects of friction on clothes. (A. Bennett)

4. I took my obedient feet away from him. (W.S. Gilbert)

5. I am thinking an unmentionable thing about your mother. (1. Shaw)

6. During the previous winter I had become rather seriously ill with one of those carefully named
difficulties which are the whispers of approaching age. (J. Steunbeck)

7. When I saw him again, there were silver dollars weighting down his eyes. (T. Capote)

8. She was still fat after childbirth; the destroyer of her figure sat at the head of the table. (A. Bennett)

9. I participated in that delayed Teutonic migration known as the Great War. (Sc. Fitzerald)

10. Bill went with him and they returned with a tray of glasses, siphons and other necessaries of life. (A.
Christie)

11. For a single instant. Birch was helpless, his blood curdling in his veins at the imminence of the
danger, and his legs refusing their natural and necessary office. (T. Capote)

Exercise 29. Pay attention to each SD in their convergence and specify them.

1. In Paris there must have been a lot of women not unlike Mrs. Jesmond, beautiful women, clever
women, cultured women, exquisite, long-necked, sweet smelling, downy rats. (J.B. Priestley)

2. However, there was no time to think more about the matter, for the fiddles and harp began in real
earnest. Away went Mr. Pickwick – hands across, down the middle to the very end of the room, and half
way up the chimney, back again to the door – poussette everywhere – loud stamp on the ground – ready
for the next couple – off again – all the figure over once more – another stamp to beat out the time – next
couple, and the next, and the next again – never was such going! (Ch. Dickens)

3. We sat down at the table. The jaws got to work around the table. (R.P. Warren)

4. In November a cold unseen stranger whom the doctors called Pneumonia, stalked about the colony
touching one here and there with icy fingers. Mr. Pneumonia was not what you would call a chivalric old
gentleman. (O'Henry)

5. He came to us, you see, about three months ago. A skilled and experienced waiter. Has given complete
satisfaction. He has been in England about five years. (A. Christie)
6. In Arthur Calgary's fatigued brain the word seemed to dance on the wall. Money! Money! Money! Like
a motif in an opera, he thought. Mrs. Argyle's money! Money put into trust! Money put into an annuity!
Residual estate left to her husband! Money got from the bank! Money in the bureau drawer! Hester
rushing out to her car with no money in her purse... Money found, on Jacko, money that he swore his
mother had given him. (A. Chriestie)

7. Mr. Pickwick related, how he had first met Jingle; how he had eloped with Miss Wardle; how he had
cheerfully resigned the lady for pecuniary considerations; how he had entrapped him into a lady's
boarding school; and how he, Mr. Pickwick, now felt it his duty to expose his assumption for his present
name and rank. (Ch. Dickens)

8. I looked at him. I know I smiled. His face looked as though it were plunging into water. I couldn't
touch him. I wanted so to touch him I smiled again and my hands got wet on the telephone and then for
the moment I couldn't see him at all and I shook my head and my face was wet and I said, "I'm glad. I'm
glad. Don't you worry, I'm glad." (J. Baldwin)

9. What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs,

And stare as long as sheep and cows.

No lime to see when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see in broad day light,

Streams full of stars like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care

We have no time to stand and stare. (W.H. Davies)

Part 3

Scheme of literary analysis

- The particular text (the text under study, under consideration, the text I deal with, the text I am going to
comment upon ) is taken from…by…

- A few words about the author

- The text (the extract) presents (contains):

a) a highly emotional description of a scene (character, nature),

b) an account of event,

c) a portrayal of a character, d) ….

- The structure.

Structure is devided into plot and composition,

Summarize the plot in brief and specify some conflicts it is based on;

Composition - organization of the contents – exposition, complications, climax, denouement, resolution,

type of ending (open or closed).

- Point of View (in the 1st person or in the 3d person)

• Consider how point of view affects your response to the characters. How would the story change if
another character told the story?

- Setting

• How does the setting orient or provide context?

• What is metaphorical about the time and place of the events?
- Characters

• narrative summary about characters

• the metaphorical value of surface details of dress and physical appearance (and when it changes)

• what characters say and how they say it

• what characters say about themselves — what they think and feel

• how the characters interact with other characters (i.e. who or what opposes them?)

• the change, if any, that takes place in a character. Account for the change.

- The theme and the message.

What central idea is the author trying to bring into focus?

Are there any evident symbols?

- Language and Style

How does an author’s style reinforce or contradict the story itself?

What is the functional style used?

Comment on the choice of words (literary, colloquial, slang, terms, foreign words).

What is characteristic of syntax of the story (long complicated sentences or short elliptical ones)?
Find stylistics devices contributing to the general effect and explain their functions.

- Your impression of the story and the author’s style.

Outline on Literary Elements

The literary quality of a fictional book is based not upon its popularity or the ease with which it can be
read, but upon the quality of the literary elements found in the book. The following terms are ones which
should be understood and used in discussing the literary elements. Please note that these elements apply
only to fiction books.

Plot

Plot is the sequence of events which involves the characters in conflict.

The sequence of events is called the narrative order:

 The most common type of narrative order in children's books is chronological. In this case, the
events are told in the order they happen.
 A flashback occurs when the author narrates an event that took place before the current time of
the story. Flashbacks are uncommon in children's literature because the passage of time is
difficult for children to understand. The opposite effect, a flash forward, is even rarer.
 A time lapse occurs when the story skips a period of time that seems unusual compared to the
rest of the plot. There is no standard amount of time that might constitute a time lapse; it depends
upon the reader's sense that a longer than usual period of time has passed since the previous
episode.
Conflict is the struggle between the protagonist and an opposing force. There are several types of
conflict:
 Internal conflict, or person-against-self, occurs when the protagonist struggles within himself
or herself. The protagonist is pulled by two courses of action or by differing emotions. This is
often considered a characteristic of fine literature because it frequently leads to a dynamic change
in the protagonist.
 Interpersonal conflict, or person-against-person, pits the protagonist against someone else.
 Conflict of person-against-society happens when the protagonist is in conflict with the values of
his or her society. This is a difficult concept for small children to grasp.
 Conflict of person-against-nature takes place when the protagonists is threatened by an element
of nature.
 Conflict of person-against-fate occurs when the protagonist must contend against a fact or life or
death over which people have little control, such as death or disability. Some literary critics,
however, see this conflict as a type of person-against-nature.
 Several types of conflict may be present in any one story.
 Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between two types of conflict. If a teenager is arrested by a
policeman for breaking a law, the conflict is probably person-against-society. If, however, a
personal animosity develops between the two, so that the boy taunts the policeman and the
policeman harasses the boy because they dislike each other, the conflict becomes person-against-
person. Likewise, if a character is attacked by a strange dog, the conflict is person-against-nature.
But if the dog knows and dislikes the character, it could be considered person-against-person. If
the protagonist is diagnosed with a fatal disease, he or she has a conflict with fate or nature, but
also probably has an internal conflict in learning to accept his or her fate.
Most plots have certain common elements:
  A story commonly begins with exposition, an explanation of the situation and the condition of
the characters. In children's books, the exposition is usually woven into the action.
 A plot usually begins with a problem which the protagonist must meet or solve. During the story,
tension is built through a series of complications, incidents which either help or hinder the
protagonist in finding a solution. This is the rising action.
 The climax is the peak or turning point of the action; at this point we know the outcome.
 The denouement or falling action is the part after the climax. It gives any necessary explanation
and ends with resolution, the sense of at the end of the story that it is complete.
 The ending of the story may be either open or closed:
o In a closed ending, the most usual one in children's books, readers feel that they know
what will happen. The various parts of the plot are tied together satisfactorily, and the
reader feels a sense of completion.
o In an open ending, readers must draw their own conclusions; they do not know what will
happen.
Other elements which may be found in plots include:
 Suspense is a state of tension, a sense of uncertainty, an emotional pull which keeps the reader
reading. All plots need some suspense to sustain interest.
 Foreshadowing is the planting of hints about what will happen later in the story. It prepares
children for the outcome and reassures them when the suspense is very high. Good
foreshadowing is subtle and often contributes to high quality in a story.
 Coincidence, the concurrence of events which happen by chance, is a fact in real life. However,
real life is not a plot that moves from problem to climax to resolution. In fiction, coincidence
seems contrived; it weakens the plot. Coincidence in a plot is acceptable if it is carefully but
subtly foreshadowed.
 Inevitability is the sense that the outcome is necessary and inescapable. It had to happen, given
these characters and this situation; it is not contrived. It is a sign of high quality in writing.

Point of View

Point of view depends upon who the narrator is and how much he or she knows.
Point of view may be:
 First person - uses "I" - A character is telling the story.
 Second person - uses "you" - The author speaks directly to the reader. Second person is seldom
used; it is found most often in nonfiction today.
 Third person - uses "he," "she," or "it" - The author is telling about the characters. There are
three third person points of view:
o Limited omniscient - We are told the thoughts and feelings of only one character
(sometimes, but very seldom, of two or three characters).
o Omniscient - We are told everything about the story, including the thoughts and feelings
of all the characters, and even information in the author's mind which no character
knows.
o Dramatic or objective - We are told only what happens and what is said; we do not
know any thoughts or feelings of the characters. It is called "dramatic" because it
includes the words and actions, just what you would see and hear if it were in a play or
film.

Setting

Setting includes the place and the time period in which the story takes place.
Setting may or may not have an important influence on the story:
 An integral setting is essential to the plot; it influences action, character or theme.
 A backdrop setting is relatively unimportant to the plot; it is like the featureless curtain or flat
painted scenery of a theater.
 Readers may interpret the importance of the setting differently; one may say that the setting is
integral because the story must happen in a big city; another may say the same thing is backdrop
because it may happen in any big city. (The former statement is probably more accurate, but
either is acceptable if the meaning is clear.)
Setting can clarify conflict, illuminate character, affect the mood, and act as a symbol. The setting itself
can be an antagonist in a person-against-nature conflict.

Character

Character can be revealed through the character's actions, speech, and appearance. It also can be revealed
by the comments of other characters and of the author.
Certain types of characters appear in many stories. Describe the following types if they appear in your
book:
 The protagonist is the central character (person, animal, or personified object) in the plot's
conflict.
 The antagonist is the force in conflict with the protagonist. It may be society, nature, or fate, as
well as another person. It can also be the protagonist's own self, if he or she has an internal
conflict.
 A character foil is a character whose traits are in direct contrast to those of the principal
character. The foil therefore highlights the traits of the protagonist. The foil is usually a minor
character, although if there are two protagonists, they may be foils of each other.
 A stereotype is a character who possesses expected traits of a group rather than being an
individual. Using stereotypes is usually considered an indication of poor quality, especially in
cases such as members of minority groups, people with disabilities, or women. However,
stereotypes can be useful in furthering the story quickly and are acceptable in minor roles if they
do not provide hurtful portraits of the groups in question.
Character development is showing the multitude of traits and behaviors that give the literary character the
complexity of a human being. The amount of character development affects the quality of the story:
 A flat character is not fully developed; we know only one side of the character.
 A round character is fully-developed, with many traits – bad and good – shown in the story. We
feel that we know the character so well that he or she has become a real person.
 Character development is a continuum with perfectly flat characters at one end and very round
ones at the other. Every character lies somewhere on this continuum. Round characters are
usually considered an indication of literary quality. However, characters in folktales are almost
always flat, and flatness is appropriate for minor characters in modern literature for children. A
character foil is often flat, even if the protagonist is round.
The amount of change in a character over the course of the story also affects its quality:
 A static character is one who does not experience a basic character change during the course of
the story.

A dynamic character is one who experiences a basic change in character through the events of the
story. This change is internal and may be sudden, but the events of the plot should make it seem
inevitable.

Theme
Theme is the underlying meaning of the story, a universal truth, a significant statement the story is
making about society, human nature, or the human condition.
A book's theme must be described in universal terms, not in terms of the plot. The plot is the way the
universal theme is carried out in that particular book. Themes can be applied to the reader's own life or to
other literature.
The primary theme is most important theme in the story; children's books usually have one primary
theme. There may be other secondary themes as well.
Themes must be clearly stated; one word is not usually enough. To say that a book's theme is "friendship"
is not clear. It may mean, "Friends are a person's most valuable possession." It may also mean, "Friends
can never be trusted if their own interests are opposed to yours."
An understanding of theme is dependent upon one's previous experience of life and literature. At the same
time, theme in literature can enlarge one's understanding of life.
Not every good book has a significant theme; some books' value lies in the pleasure they give, rather than
the message they bring. Books of humor, for instance, may or may not have a significant theme.

Style

Style is the language used in a book, the way the words are put together to create the story.
The way a writer chooses words, arranges them in sentences and longer units of discourse, and exploits
their significance determines his or her style. Style is a kind of verbal identity of a writer that reflects the
way a writer sees the world. For example, Faulkner’s convoluted, complicated, long, and often formal
prose conveys something about the way Faulkner sees the South that he writes about. Hemingway, on the
other hand, with his minimal, fragmented, often interrupted and staccato style reveals something about his
typical preoccupation as well, World War I and its devastating effect on relationships. Again, “form is
content.” How something is said is just as important as what is said. 

• The big question here is... how does an author’s style reveal or convey the way an author sees his or her
world?

• How does an author’s style reinforce or contradict the story itself?

Imagery
Language and style also includes images, the concrete representation of a sense impression, feeling, or
idea. Images may invoke our sight, hearing, sense of smell and taste, and tactile perceptions. Imagery
refers to a pattern of related details. When images form patterns of related details that convey an idea or
feeling beyond what the images literally describe, we call them metaphorical or symbolic. The details
suggest one thing in terms of another. For example, images of light often convey knowledge and life,
while images of darkness sometimes suggest ignorance or death. 
Writers use many devices of style to make stories interesting.

Tone

Tone is the author's attitude toward what he or she writes, but it may be easier to understand if you think
of it as the attitude that you (the reader) get from the author's words. It is the hardest literary element to
discuss; often we can recognize it but not put it into words. The easiest tone to recognize is humor. In
describing tone, use adjectives: humorous, mysterious, creepy, straight-forward, matter-of-fact, exciting,
boring, etc.

Example of the literary analysis

NOVEMBER by ROBERT BRIDGES

The following is an except from a poem by Robert Bridges entitled "November." These are the final lines
of the poem, which describes the countryside on a late fall afternoon.

And here and there, near chilly setting of sun,

In an isolated tree a congregation

Of starlings chatter and chide,

Thickset as summer leaves, in garrulous quarrel:

Suddenly they rush as one,-

The tree top springs,-

And off, with a whirr of wings,

They fly by the score

To the holly-thicket, and there with myriads more

Dispute for the roosts; and from the unseen nation

A babel of tongues, like running water unceasing,

Makes live the wood, the flocking cries increasing,

Wrangling discordantly, incessantly,

While falls the night on them self-occupied;

The long dark night , that lengthens slow,

Deepening with Winter to starve grass and tree,

And soon to bury in snow

The Earth, that, sleeping 'neath her frozen stole,

Shall dream a dream crept from the sunless pole

of how her end shall be.

Theme

The major theme of the poem is the changing of season from fall to winter. The gaiety of fall season
achieves its effect from the birds portrayed as lively and vigorous in the air. The choice of lexicon from
line 30 – 40 such as chatter and chide, thickset, garrulous quarrel, hush, springs , whirr of wings, fly
by the score, myriads, running water unceasing, live and flocking cries increasing reflect motion of
activities dominating the season. Comparing The birds in line 30 to the leaves in summer adds some
vibrant to the season of fall.

The poem’s turning point is from line 41-47 where the season changes to winter. The gloomy mood of the
winter is again symbolized by the lexicon falls the night, long dark night, lengthens slow, deepening,
starve, busy, sleeping ‘neath, frozen stole, dream, sunless, and end. The choice of words is contrastive
to the fall season for they represent a time of lacks of vibrant and absence of activities. Winter is thus
depicted as a season (time) synonymous to death and immobility. Fitting the theme of the changing
season, Bridges’ choice of lexicon is predictably and typically connected to objects or processes in
nature .

The obvious contrastive mood of the two seasons is embodied by the object birds- lively directional and
vigorous - whilst the earth and its creatures are static. The presence of metaphors heighten the contrast
even more. In line 31- The birds are compared to living leaves in summer and again in line 39 The birds
make live the woods-add life to the season; while in line 43 the approaching winter prepares to starve
"make dead" grass and tree.

In short, the scenes of nature and the changing seasons is transparently depicted by the seasonal activities.

Sound Pattern & The Theme

At the phonological level, the poem successfully interweave the sound pattern to match the theme of
changing season. The phonology serves as the source of cohesion of the poem .

The most outstanding feature is the usage of vocabulary to describe the sounds of the birds. Words like
unseen, running, unceasing, flocking, increasing, wrangling, discordantly and incessantly display a
prominent concentration of affixes and inflections. This accumulation suggests the complexity and
discordance of the birds chattering at the phonological level where the choice of many unstressed
syllables create an uneven rhythm. This rhythm may suggest a pounding rhyme which is synonymous to
the zestful activities portrayed in the season.

Whereas words depicting winter are mostly unstressed long vowels such as falls, deep long, dark night,
lengthens, slow, starve, snow, stole, and pole. This lexicon is perhaps deliberately chosen to justify the
monotony or absence of zeal in winter.

On the other hand, the enthusiasm of the fall season is also reflected by the usage of alliteration where the
rhyme is noticeable in the initial consonant sound as in line 29- setting of sun, line 30 -chatter and chide
and line 34- whirr of wings. By stating stressed syllables, it produces a "strong" rhyme befitting the
theme of line 28-40. This phonological impact complement the theme even though the sounds in
themselves have no meaning.

In contrast, to intensify the meaning of emptiness portrayed by winter, the words consist of some
assonance consisting unstressed long vowels such as line 41- slow, and line 44- snow, line 43- starve
and grass, line 45- stole, line 46- pole and line 46 dream and dream. As mentioned earlier, these sounds
foreground and complement the theme of death and boredom.

Both the repetition of alliteration and assonance may suggest an emphasis or a foreground in the pattern
of the poem to unfold a melodious effect .

One common feature of a poem is the usage of an onomatopoeia. In November, this is present in line 34-
whirr. The presence of a word imitating the sound associated with the word wing unfolds and adds music
to the literal beauty of the activity of flying.

To sum up, the sound system of the lexicon in the poem complement and enhances the theme of the entire
poem.

Texts for analysis

Robert Louis Steventon

The Yellow Paint

 In a certain city there lived a physician who sold yellow paint. This was of so singular a virtue
that whoso was bedaubed with it from head to heel was set free from the dangers of life, and the bondage
of sin, and the fear of death for ever. So the physician said in his prospectus; and so said all the citizens in
the city; and there was nothing more urgent in men's hearts than to be properly painted themselves, and
nothing they took more delight in than to see others painted. There was in the same city a young man of a
very good family but of a somewhat reckless life, who had reached the age of manhood, and would have
nothing to say to the paint: "Tomorrow was soon enough," said he; and when the morrow came he would
still put it off. He might have continued to do until his death; only, he had a friend of about his own age
and much of his own manners; and this youth, taking a walk in the public street, with not one fleck of
paint upon his body, was suddenly run down by a water-cart and cut off in the heyday of his nakedness.
This shook the other to the soul; so that I never beheld a man more earnest to be painted; and on the very
same evening, in the presence of all his family, to appropriate music, and himself weeping aloud, he
received three complete coats and a touch of varnish on the top. The physician (who was himself affected
even to tears) protested he had never done a job so thorough.

Some two months afterwards, the young man was carried on a stretcher to the physician's house.

"What is the meaning of this?" he cried, as soon as the door was opened. "I was to be set free
from all the dangers of life; and here have I been run down by that self-same water-cart, and my leg is
broken."

"Dear me!" said the physician. "This is very sad. But I perceive I must explain to you the action
of my paint. A broken bone is a mighty small affair at the worst of it; and it belongs to a class of accident
to which my paint is quite inapplicable. Sin, my dear young friend, sin is the sole calamity that a wise
man should apprehend; it is against sin that I have fitted you out; and when you come to be tempted, you
will give me news of my paint."

"Oh!" said the young man, "I did not understand that, and it seems rather disappointing. But I
have no doubt all is for the best; and in the meanwhile, I shall be obliged to you if you will set my leg."

"That is none of my business," said the physician; "but if your bearers will carry you round the
corner to the surgeon's, I feel sure he will afford relief."

Some three years later, the young man came running to the physician's house in a great
perturbation. "What is the meaning of this?" he cried. "Here was I to be set free from the bondage of sin;
and I have just committed forgery, arson and murder."

"Dear me," said the physician. "This is very serious. Off with your clothes at once." And as soon
as the young man had stripped, he examined him from head to foot. "No," he cried with great relief,
"there is not a flake broken. Cheer up, my young friend, your paint is as good as new."

"Good God!" cried the young man, "and what then can be the use of it?"

"Why," said the physician, "I perceive I must explain to you the nature of the action of my paint.
It does not exactly prevent sin; it extenuates instead the painful consequences. It is not so much for this
world, as for the next; it is not against life; in short, it is against death that I have fitted you out. And when
you come to die, you will give me news of my paint."

"Oh!" cried the young man, "I had not understood that, and it seems a little disappointing. But
there is no doubt all is for the best: and in the meanwhile, I shall be obliged if you will help me to undo
the evil I have brought on innocent persons."

"That is none of my business," said the physician; "but if you will go round the corner to the
police office, I feel sure it will afford you relief to give yourself up."

Six weeks later, the physician was called to the town gaol.
 "What is the meaning of this?" cried the young man. "Here am I literally crusted with your paint;
and I have broken my leg, and committed all the crimes in the calendar, and must be hanged tomorrow;
and am in the meanwhile in a fear so extreme that I lack words to picture it."

"Dear me," said the physician. "This is really amazing. Well, well; perhaps, if you had not been
painted, you would have been more frightened still."

Saki

The Background

"Henri Deplis was by birth a native of the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg. On maturer reflection he
became a commercial traveller. His business activities frequently took him beyond the limits of the Grand
Duchy, and he was stopping in a small town of Northern Italy when news reached him from home that a
legacy from a distant and deceased relative had fallen to his share.

"It was not a large legacy, even from the modest standpoint of Henri Deplis, but it impelled him
towards some seemingly harmless extravagances. In particular it led him to patronize local art as
represented by the tattoo-needles of Signor Andreas Pincini. Signor Pincini was, perhaps, the most
brilliant master of tattoo craft that Italy had ever known, but his circumstances were decidedly
impoverished, and for the sum of six hundred francs he gladly undertook to cover his client's back, from
the collar-bone down to the waist-line, with a glowing representation of the Fall of Icarus. The design,
when finally developed, was a slight disappointment to Monsieur Deplis, who had suspected Icarus of
being a fortress taken by Wallenstein in the Thirty Years' War, but he was more than satisfied with the
execution of the work, which was acclaimed by all who had the privilege of seeing it as Pincini's
masterpiece.

"It was his greatest effort, and his last. Without even waiting to be paid, the illustrious craftsman
departed this life, and was buried under an ornate tombstone, whose winged cherubs would have afforded
singularly little scope for the exercise of his favourite art. There remained, however, the widow Pincini, to
whom the six hundred francs were due. And thereupon arose the great crisis in the life of Henri Deplis,
traveller of commerce. The legacy, under the stress of numerous little calls on its substance, had dwindled
to very insignificant proportions, and when a pressing wine bill and sundry other current accounts had
been paid, there remained little more than 430 francs to offer to the widow. The lady was properly
indignant, not wholly, as she volubly explained, on account of the suggested writing-off of 170 francs, but
also at the attempt to depreciate the value of her late husband's acknowledged masterpiece. In a week's
time Deplis was obliged to reduce his offer to 405 francs, which circumstance fanned the widow's
indignation into a fury. She cancelled the sale of the work of art, and a few days later Deplis learned with
a sense of consternation that she had presented it to the municipality of Bergamo, which had gratefully
accepted it. He left the neighbourhood as unobtrusively as possible, and was genuinely relieved when his
business commands took him to Rome, where he hoped his identity and that of the famous picture might
be lost sight of.

"But he bore on his back the burden of the dead man's genius. On presenting himself one day in
the steaming corridor of a vapour bath, he was at once hustled back into his clothes by the proprietor, who
was a North Italian, and who emphatically refused to allow the celebrated Fall of Icarus to be publicly on
view without the permission of the municipality of Bergamo. Public interest and official vigilance
increased as the matter became more widely known, and Deplis was unable to take a simple dip in the sea
or river on the hottest afternoon unless clothed up to the collar-bone in a substantial bathing garment.
Later on the authorities of Bergamo conceived the idea that salt water might be injurious to the
masterpiece, and a perpetual injunction was obtained which debarred the muchly harassed commercial
traveller from sea bathing under any circumstances. Altogether, he was fervently thankful when his firm
of employers found him a new range of activities in the neighbourhood of Bordeaux. His thankfulness,
however, ceased abruptly at the Franco-Italian frontier. An imposing array of official force barred his
departure, and he was sternly reminded of the stringent law which forbids the exportation of Italian works
of art.
 A diplomatic parley ensued between the Luxemburgian and Italian Governments, and at one time
the European situation became overcast with the possibilities of trouble. But the Italian Government stood
firm; it declined to concern itself in the least with the fortunes or even the existence of Henri Deplis,
commercial traveller, but was immovable in its decision that the Fall of Icarus (by the late Pincini,
Andreas) at present the property of the municipality of Bergamo, should not leave the country.

"The excitement died down in time, but the unfortunate Deplis, who was of a constitutionally
retiring disposition, found himself a few months later once more the storm-centre of a furious
controversy. A certain German art expert, who had obtained from the municipality of Bergamo
permission to inspect the famous masterpiece, declared it to be a spurious Pincini, probably the work of
some pupil whom he had employed in his declining years. The evidence of Deplis on the subject was
obviously worthless, as he had been under the influence of the customary narcotics during the long
process of pricking in the design. The editor of an Italian art journal refuted the contentions of the
German expert and undertook to prove that his private life did not conform to any modern standard of
decency. The whole of Italy and Germany were drawn into the dispute, and the rest of Europe was soon
involved in the quarrel. There were stormy scenes in the Spanish Parliament, and the University of
Copenhagen bestowed a gold medal on the German expert (afterwards sending a commission to examine
his proofs on the spot), while two Polish schoolboys in Paris committed suicide to show what they
thought of the matter.

"Meanwhile, the unhappy human background fared no better than before, and it was not
surprising that he drifted into the ranks of Italian anarchists. Four times at least he was escorted to the
frontier as a dangerous and undesirable foreigner, but he was always brought back as the Fall of Icarus
(attributed to Pincini, Andreas, early Twentieth Century). And then one day, at an anarchist congress at
Genoa, a fellow-worker, in the heat of debate, broke a phial full of corrosive liquid over his back. The red
shirt that he was wearing mitigated the effects, but the Icarus was ruined beyond recognition. His
assailant was severely reprimanded for assaulting a fellow-anarchist and received seven years
imprisonment for defacing a national art treasure. As soon as he was able to leave the hospital Henri
Deplis was put across the frontier as an undesirable alien.

"In the quieter streets of Paris, especially in the neighbourhood of the Ministry of Fine Arts, you
may sometimes meet a depressed, anxious-looking man, who, if you pass him the time of day, will
answer you with a slight Luxemburgian accent. He nurses the illusion that he is one of the lost arms of the
Venus de Milo, and hopes that the French Government may be persuaded to buy him. On all other
subjects I believe he is tolerably sane."

arturo vivante

CAN-CAN

«I'm going to go for a drive," he said to his wife. "I'll be back in an hour or two."

He didn't often leave the house for more than the few minutes it took him to go to the post office
or to a store, but spent his time hanging around, doing odds jobs—Mr, Fix-it, his wife called him—and
also, though not nearly enough of it, painting—which he made his living from.

"All right," his wife said brightly, as though he were doing her a favor. As a matter of fact, she
didn't really like him to leave; she felt safer with him at home, and he helped look after the children,
especially the baby. "You're glad to be rid of me, aren't you?" he said.

"Uh-huh," she said with a smile that suddenly made her look very pretty—someone to be missed.

She didn't ask him where he was going for his drive. She wasn't the least bit inquisitive, though
jealous she was in silent, subtle ways.
 As he put his coat on, he watched her. She was in the living room with their elder daughter. "Do
the can-can, mother," the child said, at which she held up her skirt and did the can-can, kicking her legs
up high in his direction.

He wasn't simply going out for a drive, as he had said, but going to a cafe, to meet Sarah, whom
his wife knew but did not suspect, and with her go to a house on a lake his wife knew nothing about—a
summer cottage to which he had the key. "Well, goodbye," he said. "Bye," she called back, still dancing.

This wasn't the way a husband expected his wife — whom he was about to leave at home to go to
another woman — to behave at all, he thought. He expected her to be sewing or washing, not doing the
can-can, for God's sake. Yes, doing something uninteresting and unattractive, like darning children's
clothes. She had no stockings on, no shoes, and her legs looked very white and smooth, secret, as though
he had never touched them or come near them. Her feet, swinging up and down high in the air, seemed to
be nodding to him. She held her skirt bunched up, attractively. Why was she doing that of all times now?
He lingered7. Her eyes had mockery in them, and she laughed. The child laughed with her as she danced.
She was still dancing as he left the house.

He thought of the difficulties he had had arranging this rendezvous— going out to a call box;
phoning Sarah at her office (she was married, too); her being out; his calling her again; the busy signal;
the coin falling out of sight, his opening the door of the phone box in order to retrieve it; at last getting
her on the line; her asking him to call again next week, finally setting a date.

Waiting for her at the cafe, he surprised himself hoping that she wouldn't come. The appointment
was at three. It was now ten past. Well, she was often late. He looked at the clock, and at the picture
window for her car. A car like hers, and yet not hers—no luggage rack on it. The smooth hardtop gave
him a peculiar pleasure. Why? It was 3:15 now. Perhaps she wouldn't come. No, if she was going to come
at all, this was the most likely time for her to arrive. Twenty past. Ah, now there was some hope. Hope?
How strange he should be hoping for her absence. Why had he made the appointment if he was hoping
she would miss it? He didn't know why, but simpler, simpler if she didn't come. Because all he wanted
now was to smoke that cigarette, drink that cup of coffee for the sake of them, and not to give himself
something to do. And he wished he could go for a drive, free and easy, as he had said he would. But he
waited, and at 3:30 she arrived. "I had almost given up hope," he said. They drove to the house on the
lake. As he held her in his arms he couldn't think of her; for the life of him he couldn't.

"What are you thinking about?" she said afterwards, sensing his detachment.

For a moment he didn't answer, then he said, "You really want to know what I was thinking of?"

"Yes," she said, a little anxiously.

He suppressed a laugh, as though what he was going to tell her was too absurd or silly. "I was
thinking of someone doing the can-can."

"Oh," she said, reassured. "For a moment I was afraid you were thinking of your wife."

Samuel M. Fuller

SO BRENDA GETS HER MAN

It all started when they told me I had to get a new idea to advertise Ravenal's new drama. The
Wall Street tycoons were anxious over the fat bankroll invested into this drama and wanted some results.
Movies is a business too often with a hangover, but the bosses only wanted the bubbles in the champagne.
Of course, if I had my way, they'd never have shot that story. But those bigshots who live on Persian
melon, Otard cognac and tennis all day never ask publicity people for any advice. My job was to come
through with sensational tricks. I must have dug a hole deep in my office rug when the idea hit me. Five
minutes later I was telling it to the boss. And what was it? John Ravenal, the great lover; would go to
Midland, Kansas, with a movie group to advertise the premiere of «Cattle Baron».

'Now look,' I said. "In this town we'll get all the women together. They'll draw straws for
Ravenal. The winner gets him as her house guest for twenty-four hours. Get it? It hit him between the
eyes. The''John Ravenal Special" train pulled into Midland; filled with newspapermen, cameramen and
aspirin tablets. Right from the start my job was a sensation. That night the Town Hall was jammed with
female Midlanders. You should have been there. The girl who pulled the short straw fainted. But she won
America's greatest out door lover. She was a scarecrow, named Brenda. Ravenal avoided looking at her.
But he had to kiss her for the newsreelmen. That was when I got the telegram for Ravenal. He wanted to
know if it was important, but I told him to forget it. I forgot all about the telegram myself.

What a nightmare! Fans tore Ravenal apart and cursed lucky Brenda, We had to battle our way
into her home and bolt the door against the disappointed girls. The three of us were alone at last. Brenda's
mother was busy making some coockies. Ravenal looked at me hopefully.

"Now what?" "Get ready for the premiere tonight," I told him.

He made himself look at Brenda. Poor kid, she had no idea of beauty. And you know Ravenal.
That sensitive Casanoya insists on nothing but the best.

He tried to scare her out of the room with a phony expression. She didn't even scream. She
dropped on the couch and started to cry.

"I – I didn't mean to frighten you, child" stammered Ravenal,

"It's not you; Mr, Ravenal." she sobbed and then she shared her sorrow with us. Rusty didn't want
to marry her. When she won Ravenal, she thought Rusty – "I'm in love with Rusty,"she repeated-a dozen
times. "Who's Rusty?"

Rusty? You know the type. A main street stroller. He was the "catch" in Midland. "I have to get
you fixed up for the premiere," I told her. "A deal is a deal." "Sure," said Ravenal, "look at yourself. No
wonder this – this Rusty won't go for you." He criticized her feature by feature, then; "Come on, – he
said.

She followed him upstairs. Boy, you got to hand it to Ravenal. Ten years in the show business
made him a top expert. He knew hairstyles, makeup and the business of wearing a dress the right way. He
began on her hair and turned it into a coiffure with class. You should have seen him handle her lips. Full,
he explained. Then he tackled her dress. Her line wasn't bad. From something green he made a neat little
job. He planted her in front of the mirror and she almost fell not knowing the gorgeous girl staring at her.

The premier? A hit – but Brenda stole the show. Nobody recognized her at first. Then this Rusty
recognized her, whistled, yelled and rushed to meet her all over again.

Next morning Rusty was begging her to many him. Ravenal looked at me and smiled. Brenda
was a cinch . She got her Rusty.

When we went back to Hollywood he said to me: "Yes, I’ve got to pin an orchid on myself. If I
ever got through with the camera. I'm a cinch to step into a style-maker. With my critical eye, I can make
a Lamarr of any scarecrow. I know everything there is to know about women."
 I didn't have the heart to give Casanova the wire then, but I just couldn't resist it. Oh, it was short
all right, and from his lawyer: 'Your wife fed up with way you criticize her hair, dress, makeup. She's
getting divorce in Reno.'

Study Questions for the Final Exam

1. Phono-Graphical Level: Phonetic Stylistic Devices and Graphical Means.

2. Morphological Level: Morphemic Repetition and Extension of Morphemic Valency.

3. Word and its Semantic Structure. Connotational Meaning of f Word. The Role of the Context in the
Actualization of Meaning.

4. Stylistic Differentiation of the Vocabulary. Literary and Colloquial Words.

5. Lexical Stylistic Devices. Metaphor, Metonomy, Synechdoche, Play on Words, Zeugma, Irony,
Antonomasia, Hyperbole, Understatement, Epithet, Oxymoron.

6. Syntactical Level. Main Characteristics of the Sentence.

7. Sentence Length. One-Word Sentences. Sentence Structure. Punctuation.

8. Arrangement of Sentence Members. Repetition, Parralel constructions, Chiasmus, Inversion, Suspense,

Detachment.

9. Completeness of Sentence Structure. Ellipses. One-Member Sentences. Break.

10. Types of Connection. Polysyndeton. Asyndeton. Attachment.

11. Lexico-Syntactical Stylistic Devices: Antitheses. Climax. Anticlimax. Simile. Litotes. Periphrases.

12. Types of narration. Author’s narrative. Dialogue. Interior Speech. Represented Speech.
Compositional forms

13. Colloquial and Literary Type of Communication. Oral and Written Form of Communication.

14. Functional Styles. Belles-lettres style. Scientific prose style. Publicistic style. Official documents
style. Colloquial style.

1 V.A.K. V.A.Kuckharenko. A book of practice in Stylistics. 2nd rev. and suppl. ed. A manual for students of Foreign Languages
Departments of Higher Educational Institutions. Vinnytsia: Nova Knyga, 2000

2 1) idiosyncrasy – индивидуальная отличительная особенность ( характера, стиля и т.п. )

3 nonce-word – слово, образованное только для данного случая

4 chiasmus – хиазм (инверсия во второй половине фразы; напр.: He rose up and down sat
she. - Он встал и села она. )

5 litotes – литота ( фигура речи, в которой утверждение представляется как отрицание

отрицания, например - небесполезный )
6 The affected manner of Lord Muttonhead's pronunciation was well preserved in the Russian translation of the
Pickwick Papers: «...с гешеткой впегеди для кучега».