The Ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education of the Republic of

Uzbekistan

Karakalpak State University

D. Khadjieva, D. Jumambetova

English Stylistics
Manual for
foreign language and literature 5111400 and filology and teaching languages5120100

Nukus - 2020

1
 “English Stylistics”
D. Khadjieva, D. Jumambetova
Nukus, 2020
178p

English Stylistics is a book of practice which can be used alongside in

theoretical and practical course of English Stylistics. Its aim is to help
students acquire and use the knowledge and techniques necessary for the
stylistic analysis of a text, i.e. find and interpret language structure, which
carry some additional information of the emotive, logical or evaluative types,
all serving to enrich deepen and clarify the text.
The book is divided into two parts, first one containing a brief
theoretical survey, questions checking the students’ comprehension, and
2nd chapter presents activities and tasks recommended to use during
seminar classes.
The book ends with a list of the authors, whose have been used for
illustration.
The manual was discussed at the meeting of the scientific council of Karakalpak
State University and recommended to publication. ( №10/8.1: 30.05.2020)

Английская стилистика - это практическая книга, которую

можно использовать в теоретическом и практическом курсе
английской стилистики. Его цель состоит в том, чтобы помочь
студентам приобрести и использовать знания и методы, необходимые
для стилистического анализа текста, то есть найти и
интерпретировать структуру языка, которая несет некоторую
дополнительную информацию эмоционального, логического или
оценочного типов, и все это служит для обогащения, углубления и
уточнения текст.
Книга разделена на две части, первая из которых содержит
краткий теоретический обзор, вопросы для проверки понимания
студентами, а во 2-й главе представлены упражнения и задачи,
которые рекомендуется использовать во время семинаров.
Книга заканчивается списком авторов, которые были
использованы для иллюстрации.

Reviewers: dots. G. Tlewmuratov,

prof. D. Teshabaeva.

Editor: dots. Dj.Kurbanbaev.

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CONTENTS
Preface......................................................................................................................4
Lecture 1.Content,subject and methods of stylistics .............................................5
Lecture 2.Stylistic Classification of the English Vocabulary...............................16
Lecture 3. Functional Style of the English language.............................................29
Lecture 4. Lexical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices.................................47
Lecture 5. Lexico-Syntactical Stylistic Devices..................................................67
Lecture 6.Syntactical Expressive Means and stylistic devices..............................83
Lecture 7. Phonetic Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices...............................100
Lecture 8. Functions of text analysis.....................................................................107
Seminar 1. Content,subject and methods of stylistics ...........................................123
Seminar 2.Stylistic Differentiation of the English Vocabulary.............................129
Seminar 3.Special colloquial vocabulary ..............................................................136
Seminar 4 Interaction of different types lexical meaning........................................142
Seminar 5. Functional Style of the English language ..............................................149
Seminar 6. Lexical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices...................................153
Seminar 7. Lexico-Syntactical Stylistic Devices...................................................157
Seminar 8.Syntactical Expressive Means and stylistic devices...............................161
Seminar 9. Phonetic Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices.................................165
Glossary......................................................................................................................169
References .................................................................................................................177

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 PREFACE
Significance of the manual lies in the development of communicative and
professional competence as one of the key types of implementation of competence
approach in general.This manual is intended for the teaching English Stylistics to
senior students at the Department of English language and literature .The purpose
of this manual is to help students, as advanced learners of English, to extend their
linguistic and professional competence by:

presenting significant notions of Stylistics as a subject;

helping students preparing for the workshops;

providing them with some supplementary reading material;

developing skills in stylistic analysis of texts of different genres;

increasing their motivation towards further education;

developing critical thinking.

The structure of this manual is different from the other ones.Figure of speech is
analyzed and systematized according to the following branches: Lexical – stylistic
devices, Lexico-Syntactical Stylistic Devices , Syntactical Expressive Means and
stylistic devices , Phonetic Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices.

The structure of the manual follows definite procedures: literature review, definitions
for significant stylistic notions and terms, worksheet. It helps to brush up practical
skills.

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PART I

CONTENT ,SUBJECT AND METHODS OF STYLISTICS

1. Significance and tasks of stylistics.

2. Expressive means and stylistic devices
3.Interrelation of stylistics with other subjects: Stylistics and
communicative linguistics; stylistics and pragmalinguistics;stylistics and
linguoculturology ;
4. Types of stylistics: comparative stylistics; practical stylistics; functional
stylistics; individual style stylistics.
5. Methods of stylistic analysis.

1. Significance and tasks of stylistics.

Stylistics, sometimes called linguostylistics, is a branch linguistics, which deals

with the result of the act of communication, investigating a system of interrelated
language means which server a definite aim in communication. It investigates
language potentialities of making the utterance more effective, paying much attention
to the analysis of stylistic means of the language, of their nature and functions, their
classification and possible interpretation of the additional meanings they may carry in
a message.

Stylistics is the study and interpretation of texts in regards to their linguistic

and tonal style. As a discipline, it links literary criticism to linguistics. It does not
function as an autonomous domain on its own, but it can be applied to an
understanding of literature, journalism as well as linguistics. Sources of study in
stylistics may range from canonical works of writing to popular texts, and from
advertising copy to news, non-fiction, popular culture, as well as to political and
religious discourse.

Stylistics as a conceptual discipline may attempt to establish principles capable of

explaining particular choices made by individuals and social groups in their use of
language, such as in the literary production and reception of genre, the study of folk

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art, in the study of spoken dialects and registers, and can be applied to areas such as
discourse analysis as well as literary criticism.

Common features of style include the use of dialogue, including regional accents and
individual dialects (or ideolects), the use of grammar, such as the observation of
active voice and passive voice, the distribution of sentence lengths, the use of
particular language registers, and so on. In addition, stylistics is a distinctive term
that may be used to determine the connections between the form and effects within a
particular variety of language. Therefore, stylistics looks at what is 'going on' within
the language; what the linguistic associations are that the style of language reveals.

"Stylistics, traditionally known as the study of literary texts using formal linguistic
tools, can also be done via sophisticated computer-based applications. Some
stylisticians quantitatively analyse large amounts of data and texts, not possible
otherwise, and thus can provide answers to questions such as what is Dickens' writing
style in his novels or how can one state, solely on the basis of textual evidence, that
Milton or Shakespeare's works are historically arranged?"

"The preferred object of study in stylistics is literature, whether that be institutionally

sanctioned "Literature' as high art or more popular 'noncanonical' forms of writing.
The traditional connection between stylistics and literature brings with it two
important caveats, though. The first is that creativity and innovation in language use
should not be seen as the exclusive preserve of literary writing. Many forms of
discourse (advertising, journalism, popular music--even casual conversation) often
display a high degree of stylistic dexterity, such that it would be wrong to view
dexterity in language use as exclusive to canonical literature. The second caveat is
that the techniques of stylistic analysis are as much about deriving insights about
linguistic structure and function as they are about understanding literary texts."
"Stylistics is, in a sense, the modern version of the ancient discipline known as
'rhetoric,' which taught its students how to structure an argument, how to make

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effective use of figures of speech, and generally how to pattern and vary a speech or a
piece of writing so as to produce the maximum impact.

One of the tasks set before stylistics is a thorough study of all changes in
vocabulary, set phrases, grammatical constructions, their functions, an evaluation of
an breaking away from the established norm, and classification of mistakes and
failures in word-coinage.

Stylistics has two separate fields of investigation.

The first field of investigation deals with the system of special language means
of the language. The stylistic means of the language can be divided into expressive
means and stylistic devices.
The second field of investigation of stylistics is certain types of texts,
distinguished by different aspects of communication, called functional styles of the
language.
Thus stylistics is a linguistic subject that studies the system of stylistic devices
and expressive means as well as the functional styles of the language.

2. Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices.

All stylistic means of a language can be divided into expressive means and
stylistic devices.
The expressive means of a language are those phonetic means, morphological
and syntactical forms, all of which function in the language for emotional or logical
intensification of the utterance. These forms are described in the textbooks of
lexicology, stylistics, grammar and various dictionaries. Dictionaries label them as
intensifiers.
In most cases they have corresponding neutral synonymous forms.
The most powerful expressive means we distinguish such as, stress, pausation,
whispering, and others. pitch, melody

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 Among the morphological expressive means the use of the Present Indefinite
instead of the Past Indefinite must be mentioned. This has been acknowledged as a
special means and is named the Historical Present. In describing some past event the
author uses the present tense, thus achieving a more vivid expression of the thought.
The use of shall in the second and third person may also be regarded as an
expressive means:
«He shall do it». (I shall make him to do it).
Among word-building means we find forms which make the utterance more
expressive and fresh. The diminutive suffixes –y (ie), -let, e.g.: dear – diaries; stream
– streamlet, add some emotional coloring to the words.
At the lexical level there are a great many words with emotive meaning only,
like interjections, words which have both referential and emotive meaning, words
which retain a twofold meaning: denotative and connotative; words belonging to
special group of literary English or of non-standard English (poetic, archaism, slang,
vulgar, etc).
The same can be said of the set expressions of the language. Proverbs and
sayings serve to make speech more emphatic.
Here is an example of a proved used by Dickens in «Dombey and Son» to make
up a simile.«As the last straw breaks the laden camel’ s back, this piece of
underground information crushed the sinking spirits of Mrs. Dombey».
In every-day speech we often hear such a phrase as “Well, it will only add fuel to
the fire” which can be replaced by synonymous neutral expressions, like “It will
make the situation worse”.
At the syntactical level there are many synonymous constructions, there the
second in each pair contains emphatic elements:
1) I have never seen such a film. Never have I seen such a film.
2) Mr. Smith came in first. It was Mr. Smith who came in first.
These expressive means are widely used for stylistic purposes.

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 The stylistic device is a conscious and intentional literary use of some of the
facts of the language (including expressive means) in which the most essential
features of the language are generalized. Most stylistic devices are regarded as aiming
at the further intensification of the emotional or logical emphasis in the
corresponding expressive means.
Stylistic devices must always have some function in the text, besides they bring
some additional information. The conception that words possess several meanings
give rise to such stylistic devices as metaphor, metonymy, irony, epithet and others.
Thus, a metaphor is a conscious intentional intensification of semantic properties of a
word:“Oh, Rain” –said Morphological. He enveloped her in a great embrace.
(J.Murdoch).
The dictionary meaning, of the verb “envelop” is “envelop” is “to wrap up, cover
on all sides”. The contextual meaning is “to embrace”.
Other examples:
1. The prices will come down soon. (The prices will be cheaper).
The typical features of proverbs and sayings serve as the foundation for a
stylistic device which is called epigram, i.e. brevity, rhythm and other properties of
proverbs:
1. A thing of beauty is a joy for ever. (J.Keets).
2. Sweet is pleasure after pain. (J.Dryden).
2. The eye does not see, the stomach does not get upset. (J.K.Jerome).
These phrases are not proverbs; they are the creations of writers and poets. When
such phrases are used in the text they accumulate great emotive force and function
and easily become a stylistic devise.
3. Interrelation of stylistics with other subjects: Stylistics and communicative
linguistics; stylistics and pragmalinguistics;stylistics and linguoculturology ;
Linguopragmatics is one of the trends of communicative linguistics, which in its
general sense can be defined as a science studying language factors within the sphere
of human activity with an accent on psychological, social and cultural aspects of

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language functioning. There is a variety oi definitions concerning linguopragmatics.
Summing up all the views, we can point out the following aspects and approaches:
 the relations between a sign and its users (Morris, 1978:8);
 contextual conditionality, language usage, language in the context (Сусов,
1985:4);
 speech impact on the addressee, the factors influencing success- lul and
effective communication (Кисилева, 1978:8);
 interpretative aspects of speech communication (Арутюнова, 1989);
 language as a tool of a purposeful communicative activity (Грайс, 1985);
 the problem of mutual understanding and appropriateness of language use
(Dijk T.A. van, 1977).
It is necessary to note that all these aspects are by no means incompatible. They
present linguopragmatic researches in я variety' of domains which are mutually
complementary. The analysis of the linguistic literature has shown that linguo-
pragmatics embraces a wide range of problems, but for text linguistics the most
relevant of them are:
 speech strategies and speech impact;
 pragmatic intentions and their types;
 appropriateness and effectiveness of textual communication

The shared features between text and culture are as follows: a) both text and culture
contain objective and subjective, logical and emotional elements; b) both text and
culture are meant to be interpreted. The above said testifies to the fact that there are
close links between text linguistics and linguoculturology. Linguoculturology, as is
well known, is a complex scientific discipline of the anthropocen- tric paradigm which
studies the correlations of culture and language (Ольшанский, 2000).
Linguoculturology is a rapidly expanding field at the interface between linguistics,
cultural studies, ethnolinguistics and sociolinguistics. However, it has its own integral
aspect of studying language and culture. Linguoculturology deals with the “deep level”
of semantics, and brings into correlation linguistic meanings and the concepts of

10
universal and national cultures. The aim of linguoculturology is to study linguistic
means with the help of which language embodies, stores and transfers culture
(Маслова, 2007). Relationships between language and culture are most clearly seen in
fictional texts. It is accounted for by the fact that a fictional text by its very nature is
one of the forms of culture. It is a fictional text that first and foremost transmits
sociocultural, aesthetic, emotional and evaluative information. It should be noted that
cultural information encoded in the text is of a gradual character because different texts
are characterized by different degrees of culture-relevant information

Types of stylistics: Cognitive stylistics; comparative stylistics; practical

stylistics; functional stylistics; individual style stylistics
Cognitive stylistics combines the kind of explicit, rigorous and detailed linguistic
analysis of literary texts that is typical of the stylistics tradition with a systematic
and theoretically informed consideration of the cognitive structures and processes
that underlie the production and reception of language. "What is new about
cognitive stylistics is the way in which linguistic analysis is systematically based
on theories that relate linguistic choices to cognitive structures and processes. This
provides more systematic and explicit accounts of the relationship between texts
on the one hand and responses and interpretations on the other."

Comparative stylistics is a subfield of stylistics that attempts to account for the

differences in style between languages. Rules of comparative stylistics are
commonly presented, in textbooks of translation, as \rules-of-thumb", but if we
hope to incorporate a knowledge of comparative stylistics into natural language
understanding systems, we must take a more formal approach.

Functional stylistics is the most all-embracing “global” trend in style study. It

studiesfunctional styles of the language. Functional style is a system of language
means intendedto fulfil a specific function of communication and aiming at a
definite effect. It is possibleto say that the attention of functional stylistics is
focused on the message in its correlationwith the communicative situation. Awell

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 developed language is streamed into severalfunctional style:
1. Official style represented in all kind of official documents and papers.
2. Scientific style found in articles, brochures, monographs, and other scientific
publication.
3. Publicistic style covering such genres as essay, feature article, public speeches.
4. Newspaper style observed in the majority of material printed in newspaper.
5. Belles-letter style embracing numerous gender of creative writing.
In the centre of attention of the individual style study are the problems of an
individual author’s style, looking for correlation’s between the creative concepts
of theauthor and the language of his works. Individual style is a unique
combination of languageunits, expressive means and stylistics devices peculiar to
a given writer, which makes thatwriter’s works or even utterances easily
recognisable.
Practical stylistics is the stylistics that proceeds from the norms of language usage
ata given period and teaches these norms to language speakers, especially the
ones, dealingwith the language professionally (editors, publishers, writers,
journalists, teachers, etc.).

From practical point of view stylistics is a science which provides a guide and
recommendations aimed at ensuring that speech is not only correct, precise and
clear, butat the same time expressive and addressed not only to the hearer’s
intellect but to hisfeelings as well. This practical emphasis in stylistics
presupposes the existence of definite norms thathave taken shape as the result of
the selection from the whole range of language means ofdefinite patterns
recognised by the majority of native speakers as the most suitable for aparticular
situation of verbal communication.

Methods of stylistic analysis

Stylistic analysis, unlike more traditional forms of practical criticism, is not interested
primarily in coming up with new and startling interpretations of the texts it examines.
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Rather, its main aim is to explicate how our understanding of a text is achieved, by
examining in detail the linguistic organization of the text and how a reader needs to
interact with that linguistic organization to make sense of it. Often, such a detailed
examination of a text does reveal new aspects of interpretation or help us to see more
clearly how a text achieves what it does. But the main purpose of stylistics is to show
how interpretation is achieved, and hence provide support for a particular view of the
work under discussion. The 'news' comes from knowing explicitly something that you
had only understood intuitively, and from understanding in detail how the author has
constructed the text so that it works on us in the way that it does."
Unlike most linguistic analyses, stylistics is essentially evaluative and therefore
comparative. As a result, stylistics can never be purely objective or descriptive. All
stylistic analysis depends on the aesthetic judgement of the stylistician and the
theoretical assumptions of the analysis. The latter determine: a) the structures
selected for analysis, b) the norms used to determine stylistic value, c) the stylistic
categories used to classify structures and effects, and d) the larger context that
surrounds the stylistic events. structure of the whole.
Stylistically, this means that linguistic forms and meanings enter into relations of
similarity, contrast, etc., both horizontally and vertically in the text. Forms and
meanings at macro-levels (point of view, voice, argument, setting, theme, etc.)

The notion of register

Analyses of discourse context can be approached from two perspectives. First, they
can focus on the textual environment, considering lexical, grammatical, and rhetorical
features in the text. Alternatively, analyses can concentrate on the extratextual
communicative situation. Furthermore, such extratextual analyses can differ in terms
of their generality. For example, the communicative situation of a given interaction
can be described in relation to the specific individuals involved, their precise
relationship, their personal motivations for the interaction, etc. A different approach

13
would be to focus on the general parameters defining the communicative situation of
a text – for example, the mode, the level of interactiveness, the general purpose, etc.
Varieties defined in terms of general situational parameters are known as registers.
We use the label registeras a cover term for any variety associated with a particular
configuration of situational characteristics and purposes. Thus, registers are defined
in nonlinguistic terms. In many cases, registers are named varieties within a culture,
such as novels, memos,
book reviews, and lectures. However, registers can be defined at any level of
generality, and more specialized registers may not have widely used names. For
example,“academic prose”is a very general register, while “methodology sections in
experimental psychology articles”is a much more highly specified one.
There are many studies that describe the situational and linguistic characteristics of
a particular register. These studies cover diverse registers such as sports announcer
talk ,note-taking , personal ads , classified advertising , and coaching .
We illustrate this association here by considering the use of downtoners . Downtoners
are adverbs that scale down the effect of a modified item, most often a following
adjective. For example:
(1) It did look pretty bad. (Conversation)
(2) The mother came away somewhatbewildered. (News reportage)
(3) Different laboratories have adopted slightly different formulations.
(Academic prose)
Downtoners show that the modified item is not to be taken in its strongest sense.
For example, in (1)–(3) above, the way it looked, the mother, and formulationsdo
not have the full qualities of bad, bewildered, and different.
Many downtoners are roughly synonymous in meaning. For example, pretty,
somewhat, and slightlycould be interchanged in sentences (1)–(3) above with little
change in meaning. However, it turns out that the most common downtoners have quite
different distributions across registers. For the illustration here, we restrict our
comparison.

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 Questions and Tasks
1. What is stylistics?
2. What does stylistics investigate?
3. What is the task set before stylistics?
4. Characterize two fields of investigation of stylistics.
5. What is SD and EM of language?
6. What are the most powerful means of EM?
7. Can you give the definition of SD?
8.What does cognitive stylistics investigate?
9.What levels of stylistic analysis do you know?

15
 STYLISTIC CLASSIFICATION OF THE ENGLISH
VOCABULARY

General considerations

In accordance with the division of language into literary and colloquial, the
vocabulary of the English language consists of three main layers: the literary layer,
the neutral layer and the colloquial layer. Each of these layers has its own feature.
The literary layer has a bookish character, the colloquial layer has a spoken
character and the neutral layer is deprived of any colouring.
These three layers have their own classification. The literary layer has no local
or dialectical character.
Within the literary layer we distinguish:
Common literary words;
Terms;
Poetic words;
Archaic words;
Barbarisms and foreign words;
Neologisms;
Within the colloquial vocabulary we distinguish:
Common colloquial words;
Slang;
Jargonisms;
Professional words;
Dialectical words;
Vulgar words.

Common literary words

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 Common literary words are chiefly used in writing and polished speech. Literary
units stand in opposition to colloquial units. The following synonyms illustrate the
relations that exist between the neutral, literary and colloquial words in the English
language.
Colloquial Neutral Literary
Kid Child Infant
Daddy Father Parent
Chap Fellow Associate
Teenager Boy(girl) Youth(maiden)
These synonyms are not only stylistic but ideographic as well, there is slight
semantic difference between the words.
Colloquial words are always more emotionally coloured than literary
ones.The neutral words have no degree of emotiveness.
The neutral vocabulary may be viewed as the invariant of the Standard
English vocabulary. Synonyms of neutral words, both colloquial and literary, have a
great degree of concreteness.
Special literary vocabulary(terms,poetic words,archaic words, barbarisms and
foreign words,neologisms)
Terms are words denoting notions of special fields of knowledge and generally
associated with a definite branch of science.
Terms are generally associated with a definite branch of science. Here are
some examples: e.g.: microlinguistics, phoneme, vocalism, amplitude, charge,
antibiotic, penicillin. Generally , terms are used in the language of science but with
certain stylistic purpose they may be used in the language of a emotive prose. For
example, Cronin used a lot of medical terms in some of his books. In is done to
make the narration vivid, bright and close to life.
It is a well known fact that terms are monosemantic and have not any contextual
meaning. In most cases they have a denotational free meaning. But in some
situations a term may have a figurative or emotionally coloured meaning. When it

17
is used in other styles but scientific it may cease to be a term and becomes an
ordinary word.
The domain of their usage is the scientific functional style.. Terms of general nature
are interdisciplinary (approbation,anomaly, interpretation, definition, monograph,
etc.). Semantically narrow terms belong to a definite branch of science (math.:
differential, vector, hypotenuse, equation, logarithm). When used in otherstyles,
terms produce different stylistic effects. They may sound humoristically or make
speech“clever” and “scientific-like”..

Term has stylistic functions

to characterize a person through his calling,

the beginning of ageing process

to create the true to life atmosphere of the

narration

paradizing function thus creating humorous effect

Poetic words
Poetic words are mostly used in poetry. They stand between terms and archaic
words. They are close to terms because they are monosemantic and they are close to
archaic words because they are out of use. For ex; steed (horse), woe (sorrow), to
behold (to see).
Not all English poetry makes use of “poeticisms”. In the history of English
literature there were periods, which make characterized by protests against the use

18
such conventional symbols. The periods of classicism and romanticism were rich in
fresh poetic terms. Poetic words and expressions were called upon to create
the special elevated atmosphere of poetry.
When used in the text poetic words call on a certain type of mood. Sometimes
they are used to produce a satirical effect. They are said to have emotive meanings.
They colour the utterance with loftiness, but they fail to produce a genuine feeling
of delight, as they are too hackneyed.
The use of poetic words does not create the atmosphere of poetry in the true
sense. This is due to their very low degree of predictability.
Last noon beheld them full of lusty life,
Last eve in beauty’s circle proudly day,
The midnight brought the signal – sound of strife,
The morn the marchalling in arms,- the day
Battle’s magnificently- stern arrey!(Byron)
Archaic words are no longer recognizable in modern English and have either
dropped out of the language or have changed in their appearance and became
unrecognizable.
e. g. troth (faith) a losel (a worthless, lazy follow) whereof = ofwhich; to deem
= to think; repast = meal
We shall distinguish three stages of aging process of words.

19
 Archaic words

Obsolescent Obsolete Archaic proper

The beginning of ageing words completely out of use, no longer

process but still recognized by recognizable in
English speaking community modern English

Thou, thee,thy,thine. Methinks,nay. Troth, a losel

Archaic words are mostly used in the creation of realistic background to

historical novels. The heroes of historical novels speak the language of the
period the writer and the reader live in, and the skill of the writer is required to
colour the language with such archaic elements.

Stylistic functions of archaic words

re-create the atmosphere of antiquity

lofty poetic coloring

to produce satirical effect

In the vocabulary of the English language there is a considerable layer of words

called barbarisms. Barbarisms are words which came into the English
vocabulary from other languages and have retained their spelling and
pronunciation. They have already become facts of the English language, though

20
they remain on the outskirts of the literary vocabulary. In many cases they have
English synonyms.
E.g. “chic” ( stylish), “bon mot” ( a clever witty saying), “adieu” ( good bye) . These
words are included into the English word stock.
There is another group of barbarisms - foreign words which does not belong to
the English vocabulary. They are not registered by English dictionaries though
they are used for certain stylistic purposes. It is very easy to recognize them in
the text. E.g. en bien ( well), allez ( come on), tres bien ( very good).
Neologisms or nonce-words are newly born words. Most of them are terms. The
layer ofterminological neologisms has been rapidly growing since the start of the
technological revolution. The sphere of the Internet alone gave birth to thousands of
new terms which have become international(network, server, browser, e-mail,
provider, site, Internet Message Access Protocol, HypertextTransfer Protocol, etc.).
The Internet is an immense virtual world language and its people, good orbad.
Hacker means “someone who uses a computer to connect to other people’s computers
secretly
and often illegally in order to find or change information”. Spammer means
“someone who sends emails to large numbers of people on the Internet, especially
when these are not wanted”. Recentdiscoveries in biochemistry, genetic engineering,
plasma physics, microelectronics, oceanography,cosmonautics and other sciences
demanded new words to name new concepts and ideas. Thevocabulary of our
everyday usage is also being enlarged by neologisms. Bankomat means “a European
system of automatic cash-ejecting machines”. Bank card means “a small plastic card
that you use formaking payments or for getting money from the bank”.

Special colloquial vocabulary

Common colloquial vocabulary

21
 The essential part of common colloquial words constitutes common neutral
vocabulary which is in every day usage and is a part of Standard English. They
may be divided into several groups. In the first group we have words which change
their phonetic form.E.g.a) word combinations are shortened. E.g. s’long (so long),
lemme
( let me) gimme (give me), gonna (going to); b) certain sounds may be omitted
‘im(him),’cos(because), ‘ud (would), ‘ave (have),’eaven (heaven), yeh(yes).
The violation of grammar rules is also observed:yuh gotta lawyers? (have you
got a lawyer?), hain’t yuh? (haven’t you?), there hain’t no rules (there aren’t any
rules).
In the second group we have words which change their form and meaning. New
words may be formed with the help of suffixes which have negative meaning:
noddy- a stupid person, wordling –a person who talks much.
Nouns may be formed with the help of suffixes which have negative meaning;
dolly –an attractive, fashionably dressed girl or a young woman, nestling- a bird too
young to leave the nest.
The following words constitute the third group of colloquial vocabulary, where
words change their meaning in certain contexts.E.g. He was getting along in years-(
he was growing old), I like his get up-( I like his way and manner), Let me know
have you come out( let me know the results).
Here the words “get”, “come” are not used in their dictionary meanings, but have
changed the meanings and acquired new (contextual)meanings.
Slang
By slang we mean non-literary words, which are used to create fresh names for some
things. Slang used in colloquial speech has a great expressive force. It is mostly
ironical words. For the most part slang words sound somewhat vulgar. Slang is nothing
but a deviation from the established norm of the language. No one has yet given a
more or less satisfactory definition of the term. J. B. Greenough and C. L. Kitteridge
define slang in these words: "Slang...is a peculiar kind of vagabond language, always

22
hanging on me outskirts of the speech but continually forcing its way into the most
respectable company”.
Whenever the notation "is. appears in a dictionary it may serve as an indication
that the unit presented is non-literary.
Besides general (standard) slang we distinguish teenager slang, university
(student's) slang, public school slang, prison slang, war slang, lawyer's slang etc.
There are the following slang words for money - beans, lowly, brass, dibs,
draughts (compare: in Uzbek for nyji - flank); for head - attic, brain pen, hat, nut,
upper story, for drunk - boozy, cock-eyed, high.
Instead of "good", excellent" J.Galsworthy used ripping, topping corking, swell,
A - 1.
Slang used in colloquial speech has a great expressive force. For example, "drag"
used as a slang denotes everything that is dull, uninteresting, slow and difficult to do.
"it's a long drag" means a dull and long journey.
The function of slang in the written texts may be the following: to characterize
the speech of the person, to produce a special impression and humorous effect.
Here are some more examples of slang which have this effect: bread-basket (the
stomach); cradle-snatcher (an old man who marries a much younger woman); a big
head (a booster); go crackers (go mad); I'll send you an old-bob (I'll send you a
shilling).
Jargonisms.
In the non-literary vocabulary of the English language there is a group of words that are
called jargonisms.
Traditionally jargon is defined as the language difficulty to understand, because it has a
bad form and spoken badly. The vocabulary of jargon are the words existing in the language
but having new meanings.
Jargonisms are of social character. They are not regional. In England and in the
USA almost any social group of people has its own jargon.

23
 There are jargon of thieves and vagabonds, generally known as can; the jargon
of the army, known as military slang; the jargon of sportsmen, the jargon of students,
etc. people who are far from that profession may not understand this jargon. Here are
some examples from students jargon: exam (examination), math (mathematics), trig
(trigonometry), ec (economics), a big gun (an important person), an egg (an
inexperienced pilot).
Almost any calling has its own jargon. Jargonisms are a special group within the
non-literary layer of words. Jargonisms easily classified according to the social divi-
sions of the given period.

Jargonisms

Social Professional

to be found within groups circulate within communities joined

characterized by social integrity, by professional Interests and are
they are emotive synonyms to emotive synonyms to terms
neutral words of the general word-
stock and purposefully conceal or
disguise the meaning of the
expressed concept

There is c o m m o n jargon and s p e c i a l professional jargons. Common

jargonisms have gradually lost their special quality. They belong to all social groups
and therefore easily understood by everybody. That is why it is difficult to draw a line
between slang and jargon Slang, contrary to jargon, need no translation.
It must be noted that both slang and the various jargons of Great Britain differ
from those of the United States and Canada.

Professional words are such words, which are used in certain spheres of human
activity. They are used in a definite trade, profession or calling by people connected
by common interests both at work and at home. Professionalisms are correlated to
24
terms. Terms are coined to nominate new concepts that appear in the process of techni-
cal progress and the development of science.
Professional words name a new already-existing concepts, tools and instruments.
Professionalisms are special words in the non-literary layer of the English
vocabulary, whereas terms are a specialized group belonging to the literary layer of
words. Terms, if they are connected with a field or branch of science or technique
well-known to ordinary people, are easily decoded, Professionalisms generally remain
in the circulation within a definite community.
The function of professionalisms may be different: to characterize the speech of a
person, to make the description more precise and realistic.
Like terms professionalisms do not allow any polysemy, they are monosemanticy.
Dialectal words are such non-literary English words, which are connected
with a certain area of region. They are not the property of the literary English. There is
sometimes a difficulty in distinguishing dialectal words, from colloquial words. Some
dialectal words have become so familiar that they are accepted as recognized units of
the standard colloquial English. To these words belong: a lass (a girl or a beloved
girl), a lad (a boy or a young man). These words belong to Scottish dialect. Many of the
words fixed in dictionaries as dialectal are of Scottish origin. Among other dialects
used for stylistic purposes in literature is the southern dialect. This dialect has a
phonetic peculiarity that distinguishes it from other dialects. For example: "volk"
(folk), "vpund" (found), "zee" (see), "linking" (sinking). From Irish came the following
dialectal words: hurley (hockey), colleen (a girl). From the nort- hern dialectal came
words: "to coom" (to come), "sun" (son). Still these words have not lost their dialectal
associations and therefore are used in literary English with stylistic function of
characterization.
Of quite a different nature are dialectal words which are easily recognized as
corruptions of Standard English words. The following words may serve as examples:
hin-ny" from "honey"; "tittie" apparently from sister, being a childish corruption of the
words.

25
 It's quite natural that dialectal words are commonly used in oral speech and
emotive prose and always perform the function of characterizing a person, his
breading and education through his speech.
Over-abundance or words and phrases of non-literary English not only makes
the reading difficult, but actually contaminates the generally accepted norms of the
English language.
Writers use dialectal words which they think will enrich the standard English
vocabulary. Among words which are easily understood by the average Englishman are
"maister", "well", "enough", "nothing" and the like, characteristic of Scottish.

Individual style of a writer

The individuality of a writer is shown not only in the choice of lexical,

syntactical and stylistic means but also in their treatment.1 It is really remarkable how
a talented writer can make us feel the way he wants us to feel. This co-experience is
built up so subtly that the reader remains unaware of the process. It is still stronger
when the aesthetic function begins to manifest itself clearly and unequivocally
through a gradual increase in intensity, in the foreground of certain features,
repetitions of certain syntactical patterns and in the broken rhythm of the author's
mode of narrating events, facts and situations.
What we here call individual style, therefore, is a unique combination of
language units, expressive means and stylistic devices peculiar to a given writer,
which makes that writer's works or even utterances easily recognizable. Hence,
individual style may be likened to a proper name. It. has nominal character. The
analogy is, of course, conventional, but it helps to understand the uniqueness of the
writer's idiosyncrasy. Individual style is based on a thorough knowledge of the
contemporary language and also of earlier periods in its development.
Individual style allows certain justifiable deviations from the rigorous norms.
This, -needless to say, presupposes a perfect knowledge of the invariants of the
norms.

26
 Individual style requires to be studied in a course of stylistics in so far as it makes
use of the potentialities of language means, whatever the character of these
potentialities may-be. But it goes without saying that each author's style should be
analyzed separately, which is naturally impossible in a book on general stylistics.
Selection, or deliberate choice of language, and the ways the chosen vocabulary
treated are the main distinctive features of individual style.
The notion of norm
The treatment of the selected elements brings up the problem of the norm. The
notion of the norm mainly refers to the literary language and always presupposes a
recognized or received s t a n d a r d. The norm is regarded by some-linguists as "a
regulator which controls a set of variants, the borders of variations and also
admissible and inadmissible variants." (E. A. Makayev)
Here are some other definitions.
"The norm is an assemblage (a set) of stable (i.e. regularly used) means
objectively existing in the language and systematically used."
"A certain conventionally singled out assemblage of realizations of language
means recognized by the language community as a model.'" (Gukhman & Semenyuk)
"The norm is a linguistic abstraction, an idea thought up by linguists and existing
only in their minds." (A. E. Darbyshire)
"There is, of course, no such thing as the norm to be found in actual usage. It is a
concept which must be expressed by means of a formula, and it is a concept about
that which is left of uses of language when all stylistic qualities have been taken
away from them." (A. E. Darbyshire)
The last of the definitions elaborates the idea of the norm as something stripped
of its stylistic qualities. This is not accidental. Many linguists hold the view that
anything which can be labeled stylistic is already a deviation from the established
norm (see a number of the definitions of 'style' given on page 11). They forget that
regular deviations from the norm gradually establish themselves as variants of the
norm; the more so because, as has been stated, 'deviations' of a genuinely stylistic

27
character are not deviations1 but typified and foregrounded natural phenomena of
language usage, though sometimes carried to the extreme.
The norm, therefore, should be regarded as the invariant of the phonemic,
morphological, lexical and syntactical patterns circulating in language-in-action at a
given period of time. Variants of these patterns may sometimes diverge from the
invariant but they never exceed the limits set by the invariant lest it should become
unrecognizable or misleading. The development of any literary language shows that
the variants will always center around the axis of the invariant forms. The variants, as
the term itself suggests, will* never detach themselves from the invariant to such a
degree as to claim entire independence.

I. Questions and Tasks

1. How many layers does English vocabulary consisit of /?
2. What is linguistic characteristics of poetic words?
3.What is the differences between barbarisms and foreign words?
4.What kind of words are considered as literary words?
5.What is characteristic features of colloquial words?
6. What is stylistic functions of archaic words?
7. What is specific features of terms?
8. What is a slang?
9. What slang words do you know besides general (standard) slang?. Give examples.
10.Explain the process of “determinazation”.
11. When are the terms used in the language of emotive prose?
12. What functions do poetic words fulfil in the text?
13. Speak about three groups of archaic words.
14. In what functional styles are barbarisms and foreign words mostly used?
15. What are the motives of producing neologisms?
16. Give the distinction between a slang and jargon?
17. What are the professional words?

28
FUNCTIONAL STYLES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

General Considerations
Each style of literary language makes use of a group of language means the
interrelation of which is peculiar to the given style. Each style can be recognized by
one or more leading features. For instance the use of special terminology is a lexical
characteristic of the style of scientific prose.
A style of language can be defined as a system of coordinated, interrelated and
interconditioned language means intended to fulfill a specific function of communi-
cation and aiming at a definite effect.
Each style is a relatively stable system at the given stage in the development of
the literary language, but it changes, and sometimes considerably, from one period to
another. Therefore the style of a language is a historical category. Thus the style of
emotive prose actually began to function as an independent style after the second half
of the 16 th century; the newspaper style budded off from the publicist style; Jive
oratorical style has undergone considerable changes.
In English literary language we distinguish the following major functional styles!
1. The belles-lettres style.
2. Publicistic style.
3. Newspaper style
4. Scientific prose style.
5. The style of official documents.

The belles-lettres style

Each functional style may be characterized by a number of distinctive

features and each functional style may be subdivided into a number of sub
styles.
The belles-lettres style is a generic term for three sub-styles:
29
 1. The language of poetry;
2. Emotive prose, or the language of fiction;
3. The language of the drama.
Each of these substyles has certain common features, typical of the general
belles-lettres style. Each of them also enjoys some individuality.
The purpose of the belles-lettres style, unlike scientific, 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.
The belles-lettres style has certain linguistic features, which are:
1. Genuine, not trite, imagery, achieved by linguistic devices.
2. The use of words in contextual and very often in more than one dictionary
meanings.
3. A vocabulary which will reflect to a greater or lesser degree the authors
personal evaluation of things or phenomena.
4. A peculiar individual selection of vocabulary and syntax.
5. The introduction of the typical features of a colloquial language to a full
degree (in plays) or a lesser one in emotive prose) or a slight degree (in poems).
The first substyle is verse. Both the syntactical and se-Niantic aspects of the poetic
substyle may be defined as compact. The most important feature of the poetic sub-
style is imagery, which gives rich additional information. This information is created
by specific use of words and expressions. This information is to be conveyed through
images. Images are mostly built on metaphors, metonymies, similes and epithets etc.
So the language of poetic style is rich in stylistic devices: repetition, grammar
constructions, phonetic stylistic devices, etc.
Rhythm and rhyme are immediately distinguishable properties of the poetic
substyle. The various compositional forms of rhythm and rhyme - are generally
studied under the terms v e r s i f i c a t i o n or prosody. English verse, like all verse,
emanated from song.
b) Emotive Prose.

30
 In emotive prose imagery is not so rich as in poetry. The percentage of words
with contextual meaning is not so high as in poetry. There is a combination of spoken
and written varieties of the language, as there are always two forms of
communication - mo n o l o g u e (the writers speech) and d i a l o g u e (the speech of
the characters). The language of the writer conforms to the literary norms of the
given period in the development of the English literary language. The language of the
hero of a novel or a story is chosen in order to characterize the man himself.
Emotive prose allows the use of elements from all the other styles as well. Thus
we find elements of the newspaper style, the official style, the style of scientific
prose, but they all are subjected to the purposes of the belles-lettres style. Under the
influence of emotive prose they undergo a kind of transformation. It is rich in repre-
sented speech too.
Emotive prose as a separate form of fiction came into being rather late in the
history of the English literary language. It began its existence in the second half of
the 151 century. With the coming of 16V century English emotive prose progressed
rapidly. A great influence on the further development of the characteristic features
of the belles-lettres style was made by Shakespeare, although he never wrote prose.
The s e v e n t e e n t h c e n t u r y saw a considerable development in emotive prose
and in prose as a whole. The influence of the Bible on English emotive prose is
particularly striking in this period.
E i g h t e e n t h c e n t u r y emotive prose when compared to mat of the seventeenth
is in its most essential, leading features. The history of the English literature of this
period is characterized with such prominent men-of-letters as Defoe, Swift, Fielding
etc. This period is regarded as the century, which formed the emotive prose as a
branch of belles-lettres style.
In n i n e t e e n t h c e n t u r y the general tendency in English literature to depict
the life of English society cal-led forth changes in the language. Standard English
begins to absorb elements of the English vocabulary which were banned in earlier
periods from the language of emotive prose, that is jargonisms, professional words,

31
 slang, dialectal words and vulgarisms, though the latter were used euphemistically -
damn was printed d-; bloody - b~ etc. Illiterate speech finds its expression in
emotive prose by distorting the spelling of words, by using Cockney and dialectal
words; there appears a clear difference between the speech of the writer and that of
his characters. Language means typical of other styles of literary language are drawn
into the system of expressive means and stylistic devices of this substyle.
The p r e s e n t - d a y emotive prose is characterized by the breaking-up of
traditional syntactical designs of the preceding periods. Not only detached
construction,but also unexpected ways of combining sentences, especially the gap-
sentence link and other modern syntactical patterns, are freely introduced into
present-day emotive prose. Its advance is very rapid.
The language of plays is entirely dialogue. The author's speech is almost excluded
except for the play-right's remarks and directions.
But the language of characters is not the exact reproduction of the norms of
colloquial language. Any variety of the belles-lettres style will use the norms of the
literary language of the given period. Nevertheless there will be departures from the
established literary norms. But these departures will never go beyond the boundaries
of the norms, lest the aesthetic aspect of the work should be lost. It shows that the
language of plays is always stylized.
The stylization of colloquial language is one of the features of plays, which at
different stages in the history of English drama showed itself in different ways.
In t h e 16 c e n t u r y the stylization of a colloquial language was maintained due to
several facts: plays were written in haste for the companies of actors eagerly waiting
for them, and they were written for a wide audience, most the common people. Plays
were staged in public squares on a raised platform.
The colloquial language of the 16 century therefore enjoyed freedom and this
found its expression in the dialogue of plays. The general trends in the developing
literary language were reflected in the wide use of biblical and mythological
allusions, evocative Renaissance traditions, abundant use of compound epithets.

32
 The influence of Renaissance traditions can be seen in a rich injection of oaths,
curses, swearwords and other vulgarisms into the language of the English drama of
this period.
The 16th century plays are mostly written in verse. The plays of this period
therefore were justly called dramatic poetry.
The revival of drama began in the second half of the 18 century. But the ultimate
shaping of the plan as an independent form of literary work with its own laws of
functioning, with its own characteristic language features was actually completed only
at the end of the 19th century.
Publicistic Style
Publicistic style of a language may be divided into the following substyles:
Oratorical style;
The essay;
Articles.
The aim of publicistic style is to exert a deep influence on public opinion, to
convince the reader or the listener that the interpretation given by the writer or the
speaker is the only correct one and to cause him to accept the point of view expressed
in the speech, essays or article.
Publicistic style has features in common with the style of scientific prose, on the
one hand, and that of emotive prose, on the other. An expanded system of connectives
and careful paragraphing makes it similar to scientific prose. Its emotional appeal is
generally achieved by the use of words with emotive meaning, the use of imagery and
other stylistic devices as in emotive prose; but the stylistic devices used in publicistic
style are not fresh and genuine.
Publicistic style is also characterized by brevity of expression.
Oratorical Style
The oratorical style is the oral subdivision of the publicistic style. Persuasion is
the most obvious purpose of oratory.

33
 Direct contact with the listeners permits the combination of the syntactical, lexical
and phonetic peculiarities of both the written and spoken varieties of language.
Oratorical style belongs to the written variety of language, though it is modified
by the oral form of the utterance and the use of gestures. Certain typical features of the
spoken variety of speech are: direct address to the audience, sometimes contractions
and the use of colloquial words.
The style is employed in speeches on political and social problems of the day, in
oration and addresses on solemn occasions as public weddings, funerals and jubilees, in
sermons and debates and also in the speeches of counsel and judges in courts of law.
The speaker often resorts to repetition to enable his listeners to follow him and
retain the main points of his speech.
Epigrams, aphorisms are comparatively rare in oratory, they require the
concentrated attention of the listener.
Special obligatory forms open the oration: My Lords; Mr. President; Mr.
Chairman; Your Worship; Ladies and Gentlemen, etc.
At the and of his speech the speaker usually thanks the audience for their attention
by saying: Thank you or Thank you very much.

The Essay
The essay is a literary composition on philosophical, social, aesthetic or literary
subjects. It never goes deep into the subject, but merely touches upon the surface.
The essay was very popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the 17th century
essays were written on topics connected with morals and ethics, while those of the 18th
century focused attention on political and philosophical problems.
The 18th century was the great age of essay writing. The essay became a dominant
force in English literature of this period.
In the 19th century the essay as a literary term gradually changed into what we
now call the journalistic article.

34
 The most characteristic language features of the essay remain 1) brevity of
expression; 2) the use of the first person singular; 3) a rather expanded use of
connectives, which facilitate the process of grasping of ideas; 4) the abundant use of
emotive words; 5) the use of similes and sustained metaphors.
The essay in our days is often biographical; persons, facts and events are taken
from life.
Epigrams, allusions and aphorisms are common in the essay, for the reader has
opportunity to make a careful and detailed study both of the content of the utterance
and its form.

Article
All the features of publicistic style are to be found in any article. Words of emotive
meaning are few in popular scientific articles. The system of connectives is more
expanded here.
The language of political magazine articles differs little from that of newspaper
articles. Bookish words, neologisms, traditional word combinations are more frequent
here than in newspaper articles.
In an article dealing with forthcoming presidential elections in the USA we find
such bookish and high-flown words as ambivalent, exhilarated, appalled, etc.
humorous effect is produced by the use of words and phrases as melancholy,
graciously, extending his best wishes, etc.

Newspaper Style
The Editorial News style, journalistic style or news writing style is the prose
style used for news reporting in media such as newspapers, radio and television.

News style encompasses not only vocabulary and sentence structure, but also the way
in which stories present the information in terms of relative importance, tone, and
intended audience.News writing attempts to answer all the basic questions about any
particular event - who, what, when, where and why (the Five Ws) and also often how

35
- at the opening of the article. This form of structure is sometimes called the "inverted
pyramid", to refer to the decreasing importance of information in subsequent
paragraphs.News stories also contain at least one of the following important
characteristics relative to the intended audience: proximity, prominence, timeliness,
human interest, oddity, or consequence.

Newspapers generally adhere to an expository writing style. Over time and place,
journalism ethics and standards have varied in the degree of objectivity or
sensationalism they incorporate. Definitions of professionalism differ among news
agencies; their reputations, according to professional standards, and depending on
what the reader wants, are often tied to the appearance of objectivity. In its most ideal
form, news writing strives to be intelligible to the majority of readers, as well as to be
engaging and succinct. Within these limits, news stories also aim to be
comprehensive. However, other factors are involved, some of which are derived from
the media form, and others stylistic.

Among the larger and more respected newspapers, fairness and balance is a major
factor in presenting information. Commentary is usually confined to a separate
section, though each paper may have a different overall slant. Editorial policy dictates
the use of adjectives, euphemisms, and idioms. Newspapers with an international
audience, for example, tend to use a more formal style of writing.

The specific choices made by a news outlet's editor or editorial board are often
collected in a style guide; common style guides include the "AP Style Manual" and
the "US News Style Book". The main goals of news writing can be summarized by
the ABCs of journalism: accuracy, brevity, and clarity.

Journalistic prose is explicit and precise, and tries not to rely on jargon. As a
rule, journalists will not use a long word when a short one will do. They use subject-
verb-object construction and vivid, active prose . They offer anecdotes, examples and
metaphors, and they rarely depend on colorless generalizations or abstract ideas.

36
News writers try to avoid using the same word more than once in a paragraph
(sometimes called an "echo" or "word mirror").

The most important structural element of a story is the lead or intro (in the UK)
and the story's first, or leading, sentence. Some American English writers use the
spelling lede /ˈliːd/, from the archaic English, to avoid confusion with the printing
press type formerly made from the metal lead or the related typographical term
leading.

Charnley states that "an effective lead is a 'brief, sharp statement of the story's
essential facts.' The lead is usually the first sentence, or in some cases the first two
sentences, and is ideally 20-25 words in length. The top-loading principle (putting the
most important information first - see inverted pyramid section below) applies
especially to leads, but the unreadability of long sentences constrains the lead's size.
This makes writing a lead an optimization problem, in which the goal is to articulate
the most encompassing and interesting statement that a writer can make in one
sentence, given the material with which he or she has to work. While a rule of thumb
says the lead should answer most or all of the five Ws, few leads can fit all of these.

To "bury the lead" in news style refers to beginning a description with details of
secondary importance to the readers, forcing them to read more deeply into an article
than they should have to in order to discover the essential point(s).

Article leads are sometimes categorized into hard leads and soft leads. A hard lead
aims to provide a comprehensive thesis which tells the reader what the article will
cover. A soft lead introduces the topic in a more creative, attention-seeking fashion,
and is usually followed by a nut graph (a brief summary of facts).

Media critics often note that the lead can be the most polarizing subject in the article.
Often critics accuse the article of bias based on an editor's choice of headline and/or
lead.

37
 Example lead-and-summary design
NASA is proposing another space project. The agency's budget request, announced
today, included a plan to send another person to the moon. This time the agency
hopes to establish a long-term facility as a jumping-off point for other space
adventures. The budget requests approximately ten trillion dollars for the project. ...

Example soft-lead design[edit]

Humans will be going to the moon again. The NASA announcement came as the
agency requested ten trillion dollars of appropriations for the project. ...

Nut graph[edit]
Main article: Nut graph
One or more brief paragraphs that summarise the news value of the story, sometimes
bullet-pointed and/or set off in a box. The various spellings are contractions of the
expression nutshell paragraph. Nut graphs are used particularly in feature stories (see
below).

Grafs is a slang for "paragraph".

Kicker is a closing paragraph of the story which summarizes the key point and may
contain a call-to-action.
Feature style
News stories aren't the only type of material that appear in newspapers and
magazines. Longer articles, such as magazine cover articles and the pieces that lead
the inside sections of a newspaper, are known as features. Feature stories differ from
straight news in several ways. Foremost is the absence of a straight-news lead, most
of the time. Instead of offering the essence of a story up front, feature writers may
attempt to lure readers in.While straight news stories always stay in third person point
of view, it's not uncommon for a feature article to slip into first person. The journalist
will often detail his or her interactions with interview subjects, making the piece
more personal. A feature's first paragraphs often relate an intriguing moment or
event, as in an "anecdotal lead". From the particulars of a person or episode, its view
quickly broadens to generalities about the story's subject.

38
The section that signals what a feature is about is called the nut graph or billboard.
Billboards appear as the third or fourth paragraph from the top, and may be up to two
paragraphs long. Unlike a lede, a billboard rarely gives everything away. This reflects
the fact that feature writers aim to hold their readers' attention to the end, which
requires engendering curiosity and offering a "payoff." Feature paragraphs tend to be
longer than those of news stories, with smoother transitions between them. Feature
writers use the active-verb construction and concrete explanations of straight news,
but often put more personality in their prose.Feature stories often close with a
"kicker" rather than simply petering out.

English newspaper style may be defined as 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. Since the primary function of newspaper style
is to impart information, only printed matter serving this purpose comes under
newspaper style proper.

Such matter can be classed as:

1. brief news items and communiqués;

2. press reports (parliamentary, of court proceedings, etc.);

3. articles purely informational in character;

4. advertisements and announcements.

The most concise form of newspaper informational is the headline. The headlines of
news items, apart from giving information about the subject-matter, also carry a
considerable amount of appraisal (the size and arrangement of the headline, the use of
emotionally colored words and elements of emotive syntax), thus indicating the
interpretation of the facts in the news item that follows.

a) Brief news items

39
The function of a brief news item is to inform the reader. It states only facts without
giving comments. Newspaper style has its specific vocabulary features and is
characterized by an extensive use of: 1. special political and economic terms; 2. non-
term political vocabulary; 3. newspaper cliché; 4. abbreviations; 5. neologisms.
The following grammatical peculiarities of brief news items are of paramount
importance, and may be regarded as grammatical parameters of newspaper style: 1.
complex sentences with a developed system of clauses; 2. verbal constructions; 3.
syntactical complexes; 4. attributive noun groups; 5. specific word order.

b) The headline

The headline is the title given to a news item of a newspaper article. The main
function of the headline is to inform the reader briefly of what the news that follows
is about.
Syntactically headlines are very short sentences or phrases of a variety of patterns: 1.
full declarative sentences; 2. interrogative sentences; 3. nominative sentences; 4.
elliptical sentences; 5. sentences with articles omitted; 6. phrases with verbals; 7.
questions in the forms of statements; 8. complex sentences; 9. headlines including
direct speech.

b) Advertisements and announcements

The function of advertisement and announcement is to inform the reader. There are 2
basic types of advertisements and announcements in the modern English newspaper:
classified and non-classified (separate). In classified advertisements and
announcements various kinds of information are arranged according to subject-matter
into sections, each bearing an appropriate name.As for the separate advertisements
and announcements, the variety of language form and subject-matter is so great that
hardly any essential features common to all be pointed out.

c) The editorial

40
Editorials are an intermediate phenomenon bearing the stamp of both the newspaper
style and the publistic style.The function of the editorial is to influence the reader by
giving an interpretation of certain facts. Emotional coloring in editorial articles is also
achieved with the help of various stylistic devices(especially metaphors and epithets),
both lexical and syntactical, the use of which is largely traditional.

SCIENTIFIC PROSE STYLE

The purpose of science as a branch of human activity is to disclose by research

the inner substance of things and phenomena of objective reality and find out the
laws regulating them, thus enabling man to predict, control and direct their future
development in order to improve the material and social life of mankind. The style of
scientific prose is therefore mainly characterized by an arrangement of language
means which will bring proofs to clinch a theory. The main function of scientific
prose is proof. The selection of language means must therefore meet this principle
requirement.
The genre of scientific works is mostly characteristic of the written form of language
(scientific articles, monographs or textbooks), but it may also be found in its oral
form (in scientific reports, lectures, discussions at conferences, etc.); in the latter case
this style has some features of colloquial speech. The language of science is governed
by the aim of the functional style of scientific prose, which is to prove a hypothesis,
to create new concepts, to disclose the internal laws of existence, development,
relations between different phenomena, etc. The language means used, therefore, tend
to be objective, precise, unemotional, and devoid of any individuality; there is a
striving for the most generalized form of expression.

The first and most noticeable feature of this style is the logical sequence of
utterances with clear indication of their interrelations and interdependence, that is
why in no other functional style there is such a developed and varied system of
connectives as in scientific prose. The most frequently words used in scientific prose
41
are functional words – conjunctions and prepositions. The first 100 most
frequent words of this style comprises the following units:

a) prepositions: of, to, in, for, with, on, at, by, from, out, about, down;
b) prepositional phrases: in terms of; in view of, in spite of, in common with, on
behalf of, as a result of; by means of, on the ground of, in case of;

c) conjunctional phrases: in order that, in case that, in spite of the fact that, on the
ground that, for fear that;

d) pronouns: one, it, we, they;

e) notional words: people, time, two, like, man, made, years.

A particularly important aspect of scientific and technological language is the

subject-neutral vocabulary which cuts across different specialized domains. In
particular, a great deal of scientific work involves giving instructions to act in a
certain way, or reporting on the consequences of having so acted. Several lexical
categories can be identified within the language of scientific instruction and
narrative:
Verbs of exposition: ascertain, assume, compare, construct, describe,
determine, estimate, examine, explain, label, plot, record, test, verify.

Verbs of warning and advising: avoid, check, ensure, notice, prevent, remember,
take care; also several negative items: not drop, not spill.
Verbs of manipulation: adjust, align, assemble, begin, boil, clamp, connect,
cover, decrease, dilute, extract, fill, immerse, mix, prepare, release, rotate, switch on,
take, weigh.

Adjectival modifiers and their related adverbs: careful(y), clockwise,

continuous(ly), final(ly), gradual(ly), moderate(ly), periodic(ally), secure(ly),
subsequent(ly), vertical(ly).The general vocabulary employed in scientific prose bears
its direct referential meaning, that is, words used in scientific prose will always tend

42
to be used in their primary logical meaning. Hardly a single word will be found here
which is used in more than one meaning. Nor will there be any words with contextual
meaning. Even the possibility of ambiguity is avoided.Likewise neutral and common
literary words used in scientific prose will be explained, even if their meaning is
slightly modified, either in the context or in a foot-note by a parenthesis, or an
attributive phrase.

A second and no less important feature and, probably, the most conspicuous, is the
use of terms specific to each given branch of science. Due to the rapid dissemination
of scientific and technical ideas, particularly in the exact sciences, some scientific and
technical terms begin to circulate outside the narrow field they belong to and
eventually begin to develop new meanings. But the overwhelming majority of terms
do not undergo this process of de-terminization and remain the property of scientific
prose.

A third characteristic feature of scientific style is special sentence-patterns.

They are of three types: postulatory, argumentative and formulative. A hypothesis, a
scientific conjecture or a forecast must be based on facts already known, on facts
systematized and defined. Therefore every piece of scientific prose will begin with
postulatory statements which are taken as self-evident and needing no proof. A
reference to these facts is only preliminary to the exposition of the writer’s
ideas and is therefore summed up in precisely formulated statements accompanied, if
considered necessary, by references to source. If all the wavelengths are mixed, a
white light will be produced. (postulatory). This one-celled organism ate, grew,
responded to its surroundings, reproduced itself, and spread throughout the oceans.
All life has probably evolved from that single original cell. (argumentative)
Chemical energy is potential energy that is stored in gasoline, food or oil;
mechanical energy is energy related to the movements of objects. (formulative)
The writer’s own ideas are also shaped in formulae, which are enunciation of a
doctrine or theory of a principle, an argument, the result of an investigation, etc. The

43
definition sentence-pattern in a scientific utterance, that is the sentence which sums
up the argument, is generally a kind of clincher sentence: Theoretical models
represent their objects in more abstract ways; they are often based on assumptions
about how something is structured, or how it might be related to other phenomena.
These models are attempts to construct images of the object of study, i.e. images that
hopefully make it easier to visualize, understand and analyze. Theoretical models are
representations that are highly idealized and simplified; they are nevertheless useful
conceptual tools. Scientific material, although challenging in content, seems easy to
read due to its grammatical and discourse structure. There is a number of central
features of textual structure to present arguments transparently and coherently,
distributing its information content in ways which make it seem accessible and
digestible.

Sentences range from 7 to 52 words. This is typical of academic writing.

Clauses have short subjects, with most of the information stated after the verb.Such
sentences are much easier to understand than alternative.
Points of contrast are rhetorically balanced, using such devices as the
more…the less.The passive constructions are a helpful way of ensuring a
smooth flow of ideas, and are important in allowing objects to receive prominence
within clause structure.

A fourth observable feature of the style of modern scientific prose, and one that
strikes the eye of the reader, is the use of quotations and references. These sometimes
occupy as much as half a page. The references have a definite compositional pattern,
namely, the name of the writer referred to, the title of the work quoted, the publishing
house, the place and the year it was published, and the page of the excerpt quoted or
referred to. One of the internationally recognized styles of bibliographic records is
known as the Harvard System. It lists references in alphabetical order of
authors’ names. Where there is more than one work by the same author, these
are listed chronologically. If there is more than one work in the same year, a letter is

44
added: 2004a, 2004b. The Harvard System has a number of different formats,
depending on the type of references, for example, consider reference to a book, here
the sequence is: Author’s name, initials; year of publication; title in italics;
edition (if not the first); place of publication; publisher: Cruse A.(2000). Meaning in
Language: An Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics. Oxford & New York:
Oxford University Press.

A fifth feature of scientific style, which makes it distinguishable from other

styles, is the frequent use of foot-notes, not of the reference kind, but digressive in
character. This is in full accord with the main requirement of the style, which is
logical coherence of ideas expressed. Anything that seems to violate this requirement
or seems not to be immediately relevant to the matter in hand but at the same time
serves indirectly to back up the idea will be placed in a foot-note.
Scientific language has been criticized for being complicated, dry, explanatory,
impersonal, formal, abstract and qualified. It is said that in scientific texts, matters
speak for the authors, while the authors hide behind quotations. It is therefore a fact
that scientific language affects our view of science and what is scientific. It modifies
our ideas of scientists, their attitudes and their mutual relationships. However, the
'science' in a text is not in the abundance of qualifiers, definitions or abstractions, but
in the logic of the methods and scientific work and the meanings which the scientific
language constructs in the texts

So, what is scientific language like? What should it be like? Writing is collaboration
with the reader!
The goals of scientific writing are:
•legibility, understandability and memorability
• unambiguity
• fluency
• clarity, which is realized by functional and careful structuring of the text, using
coherent sentence structures, unambiguous expressions, appropriate choices of words
and exact concepts.
• freshness, durability

45
• sparking interest
• dialogue with the reader
Efficient scientific style is clear and simple, accurate and persuasive. Complicated,
unclear expressions that are evidence of incomplete or indifferent thinking,
unnecessarily abstract expression and playing with words equal betraying the reader's
trust. It is said that unclear thinking begets unclear writing.

The basis of scientific language is good standard language and prose style. The text
must not therefore contain linguistic errors, careless mistakes or stylistic deviation.
Standard language refers to the national everydaylanguage, i.e. the common language
of the entire linguistic community. It follows the norms of literary prose and does not
contain expert terminology.

Good prose style is clear in the sense that thinking is straight and expressions simple.
Sentences are legible and words are chosen carefully. Prose style text is illustrative. It
engages the reader by using examples, parallels and opposites and by raising
questions. In good prose style, the expressions are concise. It is grammatically
flawless and the expressions are linguistically correct in every respect.

Scientific style appeals to intelligence, analysis and special knowledge. The text
presents, analyses and makes arguments concerning the analyzed phenomenon from
different sides. The researcher takes time to examine the subject and makes
generalizations. The static, abstract and objective nature of the scientific point of
view is reflected in the choices of words and the sentence structures. The text uses
special terminology, i.e. terms typical to the field.

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 LEXICAL EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES

Interaction of different types of lexical meanings.

The relation between the dictionary and contextual logical meanings may be
maintained on the principle of affinity, on that part of proximity, or on opposition.
Thus the stylistic device based on the first principle is m e t a p h o r , on the second -
m e t o n y m y and on the third -irony.
Metaphor
A m e t a p h o r is the interaction between the logical and the contextual logical
meanings of a word which is based on a likeness between objects. For example, in
the sentence: "Dear nature is the kindest mother still" Nature is likened to a Mother;
i.e. the properties of a mother "nursing, caring for" are imposed on the nature. Thus
the metaphor can be defined as the power of realizing two lexical meanings
simultaneously.
Metaphor can be embodied in all the meaningful parts of speech, in nouns,
adjectives, verbs, adverbs, even in prepositions. E.g.:
"The leaves fell sorrowfully"
Here it is the adverb that is a metaphor.
The metaphor is a well-known semantic way of building new meanings and new
words. According to scientists "It is due to the metaphor that each thing seems to have
its name in language".
Metaphors are classified according to three aspects:
1) the degree of expressiveness;
2) the structure, i.e. in what linguistic it is presented or by what part of speech it is
expressed;
3) the function, i.e. the role of a stylistic device in making up an image.
There are different sources where the authors borrow the material for images.
Favorite images in oriental poetry are nightingale, rose, moon, nature, art, war, fairy
tales, myths; science may also serve as sources for metaphorical images.
A metaphor is a productive way of building up new meaning and new words.
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 Metaphor may be genuine, that is original, invented by the writer where the
image is quite unexpected, i.e. unpredictable, or t r i t e or d e a d , that is hackneyed,
often used in the language. Their predictability is apparent.
Genuine metaphors are also called speech metaphors. They belong to language-
in-action. Examples of genuine metaphors are: the dark swallowed him; Mrs. Stall’s
eyes boiled with excitement; the words seemed to dance. Genuine metaphors can
easily become trite, if they are frequently repeated. Trite metaphors belong to the
language-as-a-system, and are usually fixed in dictionaries, as units of the language.
Sometimes a metaphor is not confined to one image. Trite metaphors are
reestablished. The writer finds it necessary to prolong the image. He does so by
adding a number of other images, but all these additional images are linked with the
main, central image. Such metaphors are called s u s t a i n e d or prolonged
metaphors:
"The indignant fire, which flashed from his eyes, did not melt the glasses of his
spectacles." (Dickens)
In the above example the metaphors "flashed" and "melt" are connected with the
main image expressed by the word "fire". This prolonged image helps Dickens to
achieve exaggeration and to give a touch of humor. This context refreshes the almost
dead metaphor and gives it second life.
Metaphors may be sustained not only on the basis of a trite metaphor. The initial
metaphor may be genuine.
The metaphor is often defined as the compressed simile. But this definition is
misleading. These two stylistic devices are viewed as belonging to two different groups
of stylistic devices. They are different in their linguistic nature.
The main function of metaphor is to create images. Genuine metaphors create
fresh images in poetry and emotive prose. Trite metaphors are used as expressive
means in newspapers, articles, in oratorical style and in scientific language. They help
author to make the meaning more concrete and brighten his writing.

48
 There is constant interaction between genuine and trite metaphors. Genuine
metaphors, if they are good and can stand the test of time, may, through frequent
repetition, become trite and consequently easily predictable. Trite metaphors may retain
ther freshness through the process of prolongation of the metaphor.
The stylistic function of the metaphor is twofold:
1) to make the author's thought more concrete, define and clear;
2) to reveal the author's emotional attitude towards what he describes. In
cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor, or cognitive metaphor, refers to the
understanding of one idea, or conceptual domain, in terms of another, for example,
understanding quantity in terms of directionality. A way in which someone uses a
concrete or physical idea to better understand abstract ideas is referred to as a
cognitive metaphor. It is a particular type of metaphor that goes beyond literary or
poetic use, and extends into practical, every day considerations. A common example
of a cognitive metaphor is the idea of "up" and "down" being used to indicate the
quantity of something. When the cost of a product, which is a quantitative value,
increases, it is said to “go up" or to "rise." These types of concepts are quite common
and are found among a number of different cultures. For example, understanding
quantity in terms of directionality in every day speech people use metaphors
“the prices are rising” or in Karakalpak language “bahalar o’sip atir”. The idea
that when a product becomes more expensive, it is said that the "prices are rising,"
(“bahalar o’sip atir”) is a cognitive metaphor. The cost of the product is not
physically increasing in height. It is a quantitative value that is increasing in
magnitude and cost. This is an abstract concept, however, in which there is no
physical component to this increase that can be seen, other than the greater amount of
money needed to pay for it.

A conceptual domain can be any coherent organization of human experience.

The regularity with which different languages employ the same metaphors, which

49
often appear to be perceptually based, has led to the hypothesis that the mapping
between conceptual domains corresponds to neural mappings in the brain. 1
Conceptual metaphors are seen in language in our everyday lives. Conceptual
metaphors shape not just our communication, but also shape the way we think and
act. An example of one of the commonly used conceptual metaphors is "Life is
battle” or “O’mir bul gures”. This metaphor shapes our languages in the way we
view life as a battle to be won. It is not uncommon to hear someone say "He won
that life" or "I attacked his life”. “Ol omirdi jendi“ or “men onin omirine hyjim
jasadim”. The very way ‘life’ is thought of is shaped by this metaphor of life’s being
battles that must be won. Life can be seen in many other ways other than a battle, as
different people think or imagine differently .For example: “Life is a journey” “Omir
bul sayahat”, “Life is scene” “Omir bul sahna”, “Life is an onion” word to word
translation is “Omir bul piyaz” ( but Karakalpar people don’t use such a metaphor
instead they use omirdin ashshi – dushshisi,) but we use this concept to shape
the way we think of life and the way we go about living.

b) Metonymy
M e t o n y m y is a stylistic device based on a different type of relation between
logical and contextual meanings, a relation based upon the association of contiguity.
Thus the word crown may stand for "king or queen", cup or glass for "the drink it
contains". E.g.:
Many ears and eyes were busy with a vision of the matter of these placards.
Besides their logical meanings the words "ears" and "eyes" have contextual
meanings - that of people. The interaction of two meanings of these words is based
on close relations objectively existing between the part and the body itself.

1
Feldman, J. and Narayanan, S. Embodied meaning in a neural theory of language. Brain and
Language, New York . 2004 P:385–392

50
 Like metaphors metonymy can be divided into trite metonymy and genuine
metonymy. The examples of metonymy given above are traditional. They are
derivative logical meanings and therefore fixed in dictionaries.
In trite metonymy the transferred meaning is established in the semantic
structure of the word as a secondary meaning. In the course of time its
figurativeness and emotional colouring fades away. In the result of long and widely
usage they become hackneyed and lose their vividness. E.g.: "Hands are wanted at
the plant". Here a hand is used for "a worker"; Nickel - the coin of the US and
Canada worth 5 cent; "From the cradle to the grave". Here cradle stands for
"infancy", grave stands for "death".
Here are some examples of trite metonymy:
fifty sails (instead of fifty ships), smiling years (the spring), to earn one's bread
(means of living), to live by the pen (by writing). / get my living by the sweat of my
brow (by difficulty); to succeed to a crown (to become a king)
If the interrelation between the dictionary and contextual meanings stands out
clearly then we can speak about the expressiveness of metonymy and in this case we
have genuine metonymy. In most traditional metonymies the contextual meanings are
fixed in dictionaries and have a note – fig.
The expressiveness of metonymy may be different. Metonymy used in emotive
prose is often called contextual and in this case is considered to be genuine and
unexpected.
Metonymy as a genuine stylistic devise is used to achieve concreteness of
description. By giving a specific detail connected with the phenomenon, the author
evokes a concrete and life-like image and reveals certain feelings of his own.
In order to decipher the true meaning of genuine metonymy a broader context
is needed. It’s necessary to understand the words in their proper meanings first. Only
then its possible to grasp the metonymy.
“In the morning old Hitler – faced questioned me again”.
(A. Silitoe)

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Sometimes a genuine metonymy which stresses the most essential features of the
character is so striking and unusual that the author finds it necessary to give. a kind of
explanation:
"Then they came in. Two of them, a man with long fair moustaches and a silent
dark man... Definitely, t h e mo u s t a c h e and I had nothing in common . (D. Leasing)

We have a feature of a man here which catches the eye, in this case, his
appearance: the moustache stands for the man himself.
Metonymy established in the language is frequent in colloquial speech. For
example: The whole table was stirring with impatience, i.e. the people sitting round
the table were impatient. Green fingers, people who have skill for growing garden.
About metonymy from the book of Kovecses (1986) and Lakoff and Johnson (1980):
Here are kinds of metonymy:
1) A conventional metonymy2) Antonomasia 3) Synecdoche
A conventional metonymy is a metonymy that is commonly used in everyday
language in a culture to give structure to some portion of that culture’s conceptual
system. The understanding of a reference to the face as standing for the whole
person, for example:
We need some new faces around here.
The understanding of a reference to the physiological response of increased body heat
as standing for anger, for example:
Don’t get hot under the collar.
Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which the one of the following (or reverse) is
expressed: A part stands for a whole. An individual stands for a class A material
stands for a thing .
Ex: Fifty head referring to 50 head of cattle. Cat referring to a lion.
The functions of metonymy are different. The general function of metonymy is
building up imagery and it mainly deals with generalization of concrete objects.
Hence nouns in metonymy are mostly used with the definite article, or without it at

52
all (the definite and zero articles have a generalizing function). Besides, metonymy
may have a characterizing function when it is used to make the character's description
significant (by mentioning only his hat and colour).

c) Irony
I r o n y is such a case of interaction between logical and contextual meanings
when contextual meaning of the word becomes the opposite of its logical meaning.
Thus irony is a stylistic device based on the simultaneous realization of two logical
meanings - dictionary and contextual, but these two meanings stand in opposition to
each other. E.g.:
"How nice to cheat your own mother".

The dictionary meaning of the word "nice" is opposite of the contextual meaning
ugly, bad". Another example:
"It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a
penny in one's pocket".
The contextual meaning of the word "delightful" is opposite to primary
dictionary meaning that is "unpleasant".
The word containing the irony is strongly marked by intonation. It has an
emphatic stress and is supplied with a special melody. In a sentence like "How clever
of you!" where, due to the intonation, the word "clever" conveys a sense opposite to
its literal signification.
 We must differ irony from sarcasm and wit.
 Irony is not bitter, it does not seek to undercut everything that seems
worthy or serious.
 Sarcasm is in a sharp, bitter, cutting, caustic manner.
 Wit`s desire is to be funny.

When the above cases of use of the language units acquire generalized status,
they become a stylistic device. When used too often a stylistic device may become
trite, then it stops being stylistic device.

53
 In most cases the sentence suffices to make irony clear, as in the examples
above. In certain case a much wider context is needed to understand that the word is
used ironically and to perceive its stylistic effect.
Irony may be expressed by any part of speech, most often by a noun, adjective,
adverb.
Irony mustn’t be confused with humour, although they have very much in
common. Hum our always causes laughter. In this respect irony can be likened to
hum our. But the function of irony is not to produce a humorous effect only. In some
case the irony expresses a feeling of irritation, displeasure, pity or regret.
Richard Altin says “The effect of irony lies in the striking disparity between
what is said and what is meant”. This “striking disparity” is achieved through the
intentional interplay of the two meanings, which are in opposition to each other:
Stoney smiled the sweet smile of an alligator. (Steinbeck)
A word used ironically may sometimes express very subtle, almost imperceptible
nuances of meaning:
1. I like a parliamentary debate,
Particularly when ‘tis not too late. (Byron)
2. I like the taxes, when they are not too many. (Byron)
In the first line that word like gives only a slight hint of irony. Parliamentary
debates are usually long. The word debate itself suggests a long discussion. A
hint of the interplay between positive and negative begins with like.
The second use of the word like is definitely ironical. No one would be
expected to like taxes. It’s so obvious like. The attribute phrase “when they are
not too many” strengthens the irony.
Irony is generally used to convey a negative meaning. Therefore only
positive concepts are used to convey a negative meaning. The contextual
meaning always conveys the negation of the positive concepts embodies in the
dictionary meaning.
 Socratic irony is a mask of innocence and ignorance adopted to win an
argument.
 Dramatic irony is a double vision of what is happening in a play or
real life situation.
 Linguistic irony is a duality of meaning, now the classic form of irony.
54
  Structural irony is a quality that is built into texts.
 Romantic irony, in which writers conspire with readers to share the
double vision of what is happening in the plot of a novel, film.

Questions

1.What is the linguistic nature of a stylistic devise of metaphor?

2. According to what aspect a metaphor is classified?
3. From what sources do the writers and poets borrow images for metaphors?
4. Characterize genuine and trite metaphors. Give examples of such metaphors.
5. What is the reason or becoming metaphors trite?
6. What are sustained (or prolonged) metaphors?
7. What is the "main function of the metaphor? Speak about the part of the context
in the creation of the image through a metaphor.
8. Characterize the role of writers in creating metaphors

Interaction of Primary and Derivative Logical Meanings

Stylistic devices based on the interaction of the primary and the derivative
(secondary) meanings of one and the same word are very popular in English fiction,
especially in that of the XIX century: the highly developed system of English
polysemy and homonymy is one of the main factors explaining this fact.

a) Polysemy
Derivative logical meanings always retain some semantic ties with the primary
meanings and are strongly associated with them. Most of the derivative logical mea-
nings fixed in dictionaries are usually shown with the words they are connected with
and are therefore considered b o u n d l o g i c a l me a n i n g s . The primary and de-
rivative meanings are sometimes called f r e e and b o u n d meanings respectively,
though some of the derivative meanings are not bound in present-day English.
In actual speech p o l y s e m y vanishes if the word is not used deliberately for
certain stylistic purposes. A context generally materializes one definite meaning. That
is why we state that polysemy vanishes in speech, or lan-guage-in-action.
Let us analyze the following example:

55
 "Massachusetts was hostile to the American flag, and she would not
allow it to be hoisted on her State House."
The word "flag" is used in its primary meaning when it appears in combination
with the verb "to hoist" and in its derivative (or contextual) meaning in the
combination was hostile to".
Our next concern is a cluster of SDs, which are united into a small group as they
have much in common both in the mechanism of their formation and in their
functioning. They are – pun (also referred to as paronomasia), zeugma, violation of
phrase logical units, semantically false chains, and nonsense of non-sequence. In the
stylistic tradition of the English-speaking countries only the first two are widely
discussed. The latter, two, indeed, may be viewed as slight variations of the first ones
for, basically, the foursome perform the same stylistic function in speech, and operate
on the same linguistic mechanism. Namely, one word-form is deliberately used in two
meanings. The effect of these SDs is humorous. Contextual conditions leading to the
simultaneous realization of two meanings and to the formation of pun may vary: it
can be 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,
as in the famous case from the Pick wick Papers. When the fat boy, Mr. Wardle’s
servant, emerged from the corridor, vary pale, he was asked by his master: “Have you
been seeing any spirits?” “Or taking any?”- added Bob Allen. The first “spirits” refers
to supernatural forces, the second one – to strong drinks.
Punning may be the result of the speaker’s intended violation of the listener’s
expectation, as in the jocular quotation from B. Evans: “There comes a period in
every man’s life, but she is just a semicolon in his.” Here we expect the second half
of the sentence to unfold the content, proceeding from “period” understood as “an
interval of time”, while the author has used the word in the meaning of “punctuation
mark” which becomes clear from the “semicolon”, following it.
Misinterpretation may be caused by the phonetic similarity of two homonyms,
such as in the crucial case of O. Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest.

56
 In very many cases polysemantic verbs that have a practically unlimited lexical
valency and can be combined with nouns of most varying semantic groups, are
deliberately used with two or more homogeneous members, which are not connected
semantically, as in such examples from Ch. Dickens: “He took his hat and his leave”,
or “She went home in a flood of tears and a sedan chair”. This is a classical zeugma,
highly characteristic of English prose of previous centuries, and contemporary, too.
When the number of homogeneous members, semantically disconnected, but
attached to the same verb, increases, we deal with semantically false chains, which
are thus a variation of zeugma. As a rule, it is the last member of the chain that falls
out of the themantic group, defeating our expectancy and producing humorous effect.
The following case from St. Leacock may serve an example: “A Governess wanted.
Must possess knowledge of Rumanian, Russian, Italian, Spanish, German, Music and
Mining Engineering.”
As you have seen from the examples of classical zeugma the ties between the
verb on the one hand and each of the dependent members, on the other, are of
different intensity and stability. In most cases one of them, together with the verb,
form a phraseological unit or a cliché, in which the verb loses some of its semantic
independence and strength (Cf.: “to take one’s leave” and “to take one’s hat”).
Zeugma restores the literal original meaning of the word, which also occurs in
violation of phraseological units of different syntactical patterns, as in Galsworthy’s
remark: “Little Jon was born with a silver spoon in his mouth which was rather curly
and large.” The word “mouth”, with its content, is completely lost in the
phraseological unit, which means, “to have luck, to be born lucky”. Attaching to the
unit the qualification of the mouth, the author revives the meaning of the word and
offers a very fresh, original and expressive description.
Sometimes the speaker (writer) interferes into the structure of the word
attributing homonymous meanings to individual morphemes as in these jocular
definitions from Esar’s dictionary: professorship – a ship full of professors; relying –
telling the same story again; beheld – to have somebody hold you, etc.*

57
 It is possible to say thus that punning can be realized on most levels of language
hierarchy. Indeed, the describe violation of word-structure takes place on the
morphological level; zeugma and pun – on the lexical level; violation of
phraseological units includes both lexical and syntactical levels.

b) Zeugma and Pun

There are special stylistic devices which make a word materialize two distinct
dictionary meaning. They are z e u g m a and the pun.
Zeugma. Simultaneously realization within the same short context of two
meanings of a polysemantic word is called z e u g m a . The semantic relation of
meanings of a word on the one hand literal, and on the other, transferred. For example:
"It is not linen you are wearing out but human creature's life!"
Here the verb "to wear out" is used in its direct meaning (to wear out linen) and
in the figurative meaning (to wear out one's life) simultaneously.
The stylistic device is particularly favored in English emotive prose and poetry.
Zeugma is a strong and effective device to maintain the purity of the primary
meaning when the two meanings clash. In very many cases polysemantic verbs that
have a practically unlimited lexical valency and can be combined with nouns of most
varying semantic groups, are deliberately used with two or more homogeneous
members, which are not connected semantically, as in such examples from Ch.
Dickens: “He took his hat and his leave”, or “She went home in a flood of tears and a
sedan chair”. This is a classical zeugma, highly characteristic of English prose of
previous centuries, and contemporary, too.
Pun. P u n is another stylistic device based on the interaction of two well-known
meanings of a word or phrase. It is difficult to draw a distinction between zeugma and
pun. The only distinguishing feature is that z e u g m a is the realization of two
meanings with the help of a verb -direct and indirect. The pun is more independent.
Like any other stylistic device, it must depend on a context. But the context may be

58
of a more expanded character, sometimes even as large as a whole work of emotive
prose.
Here is an example of a pun where a large context for its realization is used:
"Bow to the board", said Rumple. Oliver brushed away two or three
tears that were lingering in his eyes; and seeing no board but the table,
fortunately bowed to that. (Mark Twain)
Humorous effect is achieved by the interplay not of two meanings of one word,
but of two words. "Board" as a group of officials with functions of administration
and "board" as a piece of furniture (a table).
The same happens with the use of prepositions, which leads to mixing up the
attribute with prepositional object.
"Did you hit a woman with the child?
"No, Sir, I hit her with the brick". (O'Henry)
Sometimes to clear away all doubt, or to focus the reader's attention on the trick,
the author supplies explanation.
"I was such a lonesome girl until you came", she said. "There is not a
single man in all this hotel that's half alive".
"But I am not a single", Mr. Topper replied cautiously.
"Oh, I don't mean that" she laughed. "And anyway I hate single men,
they always propose marriage". (Th. Smith).
Here we see the simultaneous realization of two meanings of the word "single"
("single"-"bachelor" and "single"-"one, the lonely") is cleared away in the process of
narration.
Punning may be the result of the speaker’s intended violation of the listener’s
expectation, as in the jocular quotation from B. Evans: “There comes a period in
every man’s life, but she is just a semicolon in his.” Here we expect the second half
of the sentence to unfold the content, proceeding from “period” understood as “an
interval of time”, while the author has used the word in the meaning of “punctuation
mark” which becomes clear from the “semicolon”, following it.

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 Misinterpretation may be caused by the phonetic similarity of two homonyms,
such as in the crucial case of O. Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest.
E p i t h e t is a stylistic device based on the interplay of’ emotive and logical meanings in
a word, phrase or even sentence. It shows the individual emotional attitude of the writer or
the speaker towards the object mentioned. E.g.:
"She had a wide, cool, go-to-hell mouth."
Here a group of epithets helps the writer in a concise form to express the emotional
attitude of a personage towards an object or phenomenon.
From the point of view compositional structure epithets may be divided into simple,
compound and phrase-epithets.
Simple (one-word) epithets are ordinary adjectives: iron hate, silver hair.
C o m p o u n d e p i t h e t s are built like compound adjectives: heart-burning smile,
cat-like eyes, fairy-like work.
P h r a s e - e p i t h e t s are extremely characteristic of English language. Unlike
simple and compound epithets, which may have pre- or post-position, phrase epithets
are always placed before the nouns they refer to. They help not only to reveal the
individual view of the author and his characters but at the same time to do it in a
rather economical manner: a life-and-death struggle; all's-well-in-the-end adventures.
Very often such constructions serve to produce a humorous effect.
Another structural variety of the epithet is the one which we call r e v e r s e d
e p i t h e t s . The reversed epithet is composed of two nouns linked in an of-phrase:
The shadow of a smile; a devil of a job. Rather often epithets are
used in pairs:
"...they all stood safe and sound, hale and hearty upon the steps."
Sometimes three, four, five, and even more epithets are joined in chains. They
are called s t r i n g e p i t h e t s . The structural type of string epithets is like
enumeration. These attributes describe the object from different points of view:
It was an old, musty, fusty, narrow-minded, clean and bitter room.

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 Another distributional model is the t r a n s f e r r e d e p i t h e t . Transferred epithets
are ordinary logical attributes generally describing the state of human being by re-
ferring to an animated objects. E.g.: sick chamber, sleepless pillow, merry hours.
The function of epithets of this kind remains basically the same: to show the
evaluating, subjective attitude of the writer towards the thing described. But for this
purpose the author does not create his own, new, unexpected epithets; he uses ones
that have become traditional, and may be termed “language epithets” as they belong
to the language-as-a-system. Thus epithets may be divided into language epithets and
speech epithets. Examples of speech epithets are: ‘slavish knees’, ‘sleepless bay.’
The process of strengthening the connection between the epithet and the noun
may sometimes go so far as to build a specific unit, which does not lose its poetic
flavour. Such epithets are called fixed and are mostly used in ballads and folk songs.
Here are some examples of fixed epithets: ‘true love’, ‘dark forest’, ‘sweet Sir’,
‘green wood’, ‘good ship’, ‘brave cavaliers’.
Structurally, epithets can be viewed from the angle of a) composition and
b)distribution.
From the point of view of their compositional structure epithets may be divided
into simple, compound, phrase and sentence epithets. Simple epithets are ordinary
adjectives. Examples have been given above. Compound epithets are built like
compound adjectives. Examples are:
‘heart-burning sigh’, ‘sylph-like figures’, cloud-shapen giant’,
“…curly-headed good-for-nothing,
And mischief-making monkey from his birth.” (Byron)
The problem of the epithet is too large and too significant to be fully dealt with
in a short chapter. Indeed, it may be regarded as the crucial problem in emotive
language and epithets, correspondingly, among the stylistic devices of the language.
It remains only to say that the epithet is a direct and straightforward way of
showing the author’s attitude towards the things described, where as other stylistic
devices, even image-bearing ones, will reveal the author’s evaluation of the object

61
only indirectly. That is probably why those authors who wish to show a seeming
impartiality and objectivity in depicting their heroes and describing events use few
epithets. Realistic authors use epithets much more sparingly, as statistical data have
shown.
O x y m o r o n , too, is based on the interaction of logical and emotive meanings. It
presents a combination of two contrasting ideas. E.g.:
A pleasantly ugly face, a faithful traitor, low skyscraper, sweet sorrow,
horribly beautiful.
The oxymoron reveals the contradictory sides of one and the same phenomenon.
One of its components discloses some objectively existing features or quality, while
the other one serves to convey the author's personal attitude towards the same object.
If the primary meaning of the qualifying word changes or weakens, the stylistic
effect of oxymoron is lost, his is the case with what were once oxymoronic combi-
nations, as for example: awfully nice, awfully glad, terribly sorry and the like, where
the words "awfully", "terribly" have lost their primary logical meaning and are now
used with emotive meaning, only as intensifiers.
Sometimes the tendency to use 0xymoron is the mark of certain literary trends and
tastes. There are poets in search of new shades of meaning in existing words, who
make a point of joining together words of contradictory meaning. "Two ordinary
words may become almost new , writes V.V.Vinogradov , "if they are joined for the
first time or used in an unexpected context". Thus "peopled desert"; "populous
solitude" (Byron) are oxymoronic.
Not every combination of words should be regarded as oxymoron, because new
meanings developed in new combinations do not necessarily give rise to opposition.
Rather often oxymoron’s are met within a simile. E.g.: He was gentle as hell.
An oxymoron always exposes the author's subjective attitude. In such cases two
opposite ideas very naturally repulse each other, so that a once created oxymoron is
practically never repeated in different contexts and so does not become trite, always
remaining a free combination.

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Hyperbole
Another SD which also has the function of intensifying one certain property of the
object is hyperbole. It is deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of some quantity,
quality, size, ets, the aim of which is to intensify one of the features of the object to
such degree that from practical point of view fulfillment of which is impossible.
Both the writer and the reader are fully aware of the deliberateness of the
exaggeration.
“He was so tall that I was not sure that he had a face”.
Hyperbole may be expressed in a periphrastic descriptive way. E.g.:
“What isuffer no tongue can tell”.(J.K.Jerome)
“No tongue can tell” means “it is very difficult to express by means of the
language”.In this case hyperbole is based on metonymy.
Very often hyperbole is used to create humorous or satirical effect and so to
express the author’s attitude towards the described.
We constantly use expressions containing hyperbole in our everyday
speech. Such exaggerations are distinguished from a hyperbole as a stylistic device:
e.g.: I haven’t seen you for ages,
I asked him on my bended knees,
You promised it one thousand times,
A thousand pardons, scared to death,
I’d give the world to see him.
Such hyperboles are used in literature in direct speech to show the emotional state of
the personage at the moment of his uttering the remark.
Hyperbole may be used in combination with other stylistic devices – hyperbolic
similes.
“His mind began to move like lightning”.
Hyperbole may be found in repetition:
“I’d have been out there days ago, days ago”.

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 Hyperbole is a device which sharpens the readers ability to make a logical
assessment of the utterance.
Stylistic functions of Hyperbole is to create humorous effect and to express
the author’s attitude towards the described; to show the emotional state of the
personages at the moment of his uttering the remark.

Antonomasia is a stylistic device based on the interaction of the logical

and nominal meanings of the same word. As in other stylistic devices based on
the interaction of lexical meanings, the two kinds of meanings must be realized in
the word simultaneously. The realization of only one meaning does not give a
stylistic device.
Antonomasia is mostly used in the belles-lettres style. Here are some
illustrations widely used in emotive prose and drama.
Mr. Sparkish, a dandy, a man who pays too much care to his clothes
and personal appearance (compare with the adjective “sparkle”); Sir.
Fidget, a person who moves about restlessly, shows sings of
impatience.
Sometimes capital letters are the only marks of the use of antonomasia. E.g.:
Lord Nobody, Dr. Goodfeel. In such names the leading characteristic feature of a
person or some event is marked or mentioned.
Antonomasia stands close to epithets. The author stresses the prominent
features of a person and sticks these features to his name: Mr. Sharp, Mr.
Backbite, and Mr. Zero. Such names are called token or tell-tale names. They
give information to the reader about the bearer of the name. Antonomasia points
out the leading, most characteristic feature of a person or an event.
Associated with epithets it denotes certain qualities of a person. Many
nicknames of historical or public characters are based on the use of such
characterization. E.g.: The Iron Duke (the first Duke of Wellington); The Iron
Lady (Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime minister of Great Britain).

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 Another type of antonomasia is metonymic antonomasia which is based on
the relation of contiguity. A product can be named after the inventor,
manufacturer or after the place where it is produced: Bordeaux (white or red
wine from the Bordeaux region of France). The name of a painter, writer,
sculptor can be used to denote his work: “A Titian-haired girl”, the reference is
made to the paintings of the world’s greatest Italian painter Titian, women in his
pictures are generally red-haired. “Wall street” the chief financial center of the
USA; “the White House” the US President’s residence and office; “the
Pentagon”, the building where US Army headquarters are placed; “Downing
Street”, street in London with official residences of the Prime Minister, the
Government.
We distinguish metaphoric antonomasia, which is usually considered to be a
cliché. E.g.: He is a regular Sherlock Holms – may be said about an observant
person; Romeo and Juliet, young people who love each other.
The significance of antonomasia in belles-lettres style should not be
neglected because it helps to reveal the hidden meaning of the story of narration.
E.g.: in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” at the end of the play the Prince of Norway,
Fortinbrass appears on the stage. The meaning of his name is significant in
interpreting Shakespeare’s conception. It consists of two words: “fort” and
“brass”. The first word means “a building specially strengthened for military
defence”, the second word “brass” is a French word and denotes a “hand”. The
implication is that people need a strong and brave ruler (King) in this country.
Depending on the character of the contextual meaning there are two types of
antonomasia:
1) that based on the interaction between the nominal and contextual
logical meanings;
2) that based on the interaction between the logical and contextual
nominal meanings.

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 To the first group we shall refer those cases in which a proper noun is used
for a common noun. Proper name in this type of an antonomasia expresses some
quality connected with the character of a person whose name is used: so
“Othello” stands for “a jealous person”. “Don Juan” for “amorous”.
When O’Henry says: “Every Caesar has his Brutus”, using the names of
these two well-known Roman statesmen, he characterizes the relations between
his heroes.
This type of antonomasia is usually trite, for the writer repeats the well-
known, often-mentioned facts. Through long and consistent usage of a proper
noun for a common noun the former may lose its nominal meaning.
In the second type of antonomasia we observe the interaction between the
logical and the contextual nominal meanings, i.e. practically any common noun
can be used as a common name. It is always original. In such cases the person’s
name serves his first characteristics. E.g.: Dickens names the talkative and
boastful adventure from “The Pick wick Papers” Mr. Jingle, creating the
association with the sound produced by a constantly shaking tongue of a bell.
Most often humorists and satirists use these names-characteristics. Here are, for
example, some Sheridan’s personages: Mr. Backbite, Mr. Snake, Mr. Carefree,
etc.
The use of antonomasia is now not confined to the belles-lettres style. It is
often found in publicistic style, that is in magazine and newspaper articles, in
essays and also in military language.

I. Questions and Tasks

1. What is the linguistic nature of oxymoron?
2. State the structure of oxymoron.
3. What is the difference between original and trite oxymoron’s?
1. What are the structural models of oxymoron?
2. What is the stylistic devise of the epithet?

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 3. What structural varieties of epithets do you know?
4. Characterize language epithets.
5. What is the way of appearing individual epithets?
6. What is the stylistic function of epithet?

LEXICAL - SYNTACTIC STYLISTIC DEVICES

Sometimes for a special reason one of the features of the thing is made the most
essential, it is elevated to the greatest importance.Such stylistic devices as simile,
periphrasis, euphemism are included into this group.
The intensification of some feature of the concept in question is realized in a
device called simile.
The simile is a stylistic dvice expressing likeness between different objects.The
formal elements of the simile are the following conjunctions and adverbs: as, like, as
like, such as, as if, seem ets.
The simile is based on the comparison of objects belonging to different
spheres.Eg.:
Mr.Dombey took it (the hand)as if it were a fish.
Metaphors and similes are found in many languages. They are comparison
He ran like the wind. The moon is like blood. Benjamin is like a wolf.
In English a simile has the words “like” and “as”. Metaphors don’t have the
word “like” or “as”. The comparison is always that of some likeness. We find the
similarity of two objects in metaphors.
the child is a greedy little pig
he is an ox
he is a rock
These could just as well be said as similes:
that child is like a greedy little pig
he is like an ox
he is like a rock

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 Metaphors and similes represent two propositions in the semantic structure. A
proposition consists of a topic and the comment about that topic.
“John is tall” consists of the topic “John” and the comment “is tall.”
The comparison comes in the comment part of the propositions.
John is as tall as a bean pole.
The topic of the first proposition is compared to the topic of the second.
1. John is tall 2 a bean pole is tall.
The sentence “that animal is a tiger” is not metaphorical, but the sentence “John
is a tiger” is a metaphor. John is being compared to a “tiger” because of some point of
similarity.We must not confuse ordinary comparison and simile as a stylistic device
which represent two diverse processeses. Comparison implies estimation of two
objects which belong to one class of objects with the purpose of establishing the
sameness or difference. Comparison takes ihto consideration all the properties of the
two objects. Eg.: “The boy seems to be as clever as his mother” is ordinary
comparison. Boy and mother belong to the same class of objects – human beings.The
nature of simile is to compare two (or several) objects which belong to different class
of objects. Simile finds one or several features, which are common to the objects
compared. Eg:

He felt like an old book: spine defective, covers dull, slight foxing, rather shaken
copy. (K. Amiss).
Different features may be compared in simile: the state, actions, manners.

e.g.: My heart is like a singing bird;

The body was tensed
The components of Simile as a strong leaf of spring
A simile consists of three
components:

what is compared (the subject of simile)

with what the comparison is made (the object of

simile);
68

the basis of comparison.

She’s happy as a lark. She’s- subject
happy-basis
a lark- object

Similes enrich English phraseology: like a squirell in a cage, to sleep like a log,
busy as a bee, blind as a bat. These phraseological units are trite similes and have
become clishes. Besides the original similes created by writers there are agreat
number of sj-called traditional similes in the language, which must be regarded as
phraseological units. The image suggested by such similes is trite.
In these traditional similes the names of animals, plants, natural phenomenon are
frequently used.
Strong like a lion, hard as arock, to twinkle like a star, busy as a bee, to work
like a horse, to fly like a bird, thirsty as a camel, slow as a tortoise.
These combinations ceased to be genuine similes and have become clichés in
which the second component has become merely an intensifier.
The simile usually serves as a means to clearer meaning. By comparing the
object the writer makes his description clearer and more picturesque.

Stylistic functions of Simile

imaginative characterization of a
phenomenon

to produce a humorous effect by its

unexpectedness
Eg: A nice old man, hairless as a boiled onion.

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 Periphrasis is a word combination, which is used instead of the word
designating an object.E.g.:
My son … has been deprived of what can never be replaced.
The periphrasis “What can never be replaced” stands for the word “mother”.The
concept of such renaming of an object by a phrase is easily understood by the
reader within the given context, the latter being the only code, which makes
the deciphering of the phrase possible.Periphrasis is a figure of a speech where
the meaning of a word or aphrase is expressed by many or several

words.Periphrasis is of Greek origin [Перiфраоiс < peri”about,around”

фраоiс<”phrase”]while circumlocution is Latin both meaning “phrasing

around”,as in avoiding straightforward way of saying it.

As a result of frequent repetition periphrasis may become well established in the
language as a synonymous expression for the word generally used to signify the
object. Such popular word combinations are called traditional periphrasis or
periphrastic synonyms.

e.g.: A gentlemen of the robe –a lawyer;

the better sex –a woman;
the man in the street –the ordinary person;
my better half –my wife;
the ship of the desert- camel .

In contrast to periphrastic synonyms genuine, speech periphrasis as a stylistic

device are new nominations of objects, being the elements of individual style of
writers, which realize the power of language to coin new names for objects be
disclosing some qualities of the objects.

e.g.: “The hoarse, dull drum would sleep,

And Man be happy yet”. (Byron)

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 Here periphrasis can only be understood from a larger context, referring to the
concept war. “The hoarse, dull drum” is a metonymical periphrasis standing for
“war”.
To enable the reader to decipher stylistic periphrasis are very subtle and have
aesthetic value. In the following example the word of address is the key to the
periphrasis:
e.g.: “Papa, love. I am a mother. I have a child who will soon call Walter
by the name, by which I call you”. (Dickens)
Euphemistic periphrasis as a variety of periphrasis is used for one, which seems to
be rude or unpleasant. In contrast to euphemism euphemistic periphrasis is a
stylistic device. Periphrasis once original but now hackneyed are often to be found
in newspaper language.Here is an example of well- known, traditional periphrasis
which has become established as a periphrastic synonym.
“After only a short time of marriage, he wasn’t prepared to offer advice
to other youngsters intending to tie the knot”.
Here we have periphrasis meaning “to marry” (to tie the knot). It has long
been hackneyed and may be called a clishe.
Stylistic periphrasis can be divided into two groups:logical and
figurative.Logical periphrasis is based on of the inherent properties of the object
described.for example: instruments of destruction=”pistols”.
Figurative periphrasis is based either on metaphor or on metonymy.For
example: the sky lamp of the night=”the moon”.Here the moon is understood by
metaphorical periphrasis “lamp”.Other examples are: the house of the god=”the
church”; to enter the house =”to become a MP”,etc.This is an example of a string
of figurative periphrasis:
“Many of the hearts that roubled so gaily then have ceased to beat; Many
of the looks that shone so brightly then have ceased to glow”.

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 The stylistic function of periphrasis

to produce a satirical or humorous

effect, sarcastic description.
e.g.: “Come on”, said Miss Hardforth, “has the cat got your tongue?”=can you
speak?
to be snatched up to the skies = to die.
She was still fat; the destroyer of her figure sat at the head of the table.
(A. Bennett).
Euphemism is a periphrasis, which is used to replace an unpleasant word or
expression by a more acceptable one
e.g.: the word “to die” has the following euphemisms:
 to pass away
 to expire
 to be no more 2w1111111Qa|q
 to depart
 to join the majority
 to cross the bar.
So, euphemisms are words and phrases which aim at producing a deliberately
mild effect.
The origin of the term euphemism discloses the aim of the device very clearly, i.e.
speaking well (from Greek: Eu - well, Pheme – speaking)
Euphemism sometimes figuratively called “a whitewashing device”
The linguistic peculiarity of euphemism lies in the fact that every euphemism must
call up a define synynym in the mind of the reader or listener. So instead of saying “to
lie” people usually use such expressions as “to possess a vivid imagination”, or “to
tell stories”.The euphemistic synonyms given above are part of a language – as –a –
system.They have not been freshly invented. Compare these euphemisms with the
following from Dickens’s Pickwick Papers;
“They think we have come by this horse in some dishonest manner”.
“Have come by this horse in some dishonest manner” call forth the word “steal”
have stolen it.

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 Euphemisms may be divided into several groups according to their spheres of
application.
The most recognizable are the following:
Religious
 Moral
 Medical
 Political
 Parliamentary
Conventional euphemisms are employed in conformity to social usages are best
illustrated by the parliamentary codes of expression.In an article headed “In
Commons,a Lie is Inexactitude” written by James Feron in the New York Times,
we may find a number of words that are not to be used in Parliamentary
Debate.”When Sir Winston Churchill, some years ago, writes Feron, “termed a
parliamentary opponent a “purveyor of terminological inexactitudes”, every one in
the chamber knew he meant “liar”.Sir Winston had been ordered by the Speaker
to withdraw a stronger epithet. So he used the euphemism, which become famous
and is still used in the Commons. It conveyed the insult without sounding
offensive, and is satisfied the Speaker.The changes in designating objects disclose
the true nature of the relations between words and their referents. We must admit
that there is a positive magic in words and, as Prof.Randolph Quirk has it, “… we
are liable to be dangerously misled through mistaking a word for its referent.”
This becomes particularly noticeable in connection with what are called
political euphemisms. Thes are really understatements , the aim of which is to
mislead public opinion and to express what is unpleasant in a more delicate
manner.Thus the headline in one of the British newspapers “Tension in Kashmir”
was to hide the fact that there was a real uprisihg in that area; “Undernourishment of
children in India” stood for “starvation”.
One and same word may be periphrased by different euphemisms in different
speech situations. Eg: the word liar in private conversation may have the following
euphemisms: untruther, story – teller, fabulist; in press: dissimilator, misleader,
falsier, fabricator.
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 One of the stylistic function of euphemisms is to produce a humorous effect
or to distort the truth, to make the statement milder.
L i t o t e s is a stylistic device consisting of peculiar use of negative constructions
instead of positive forms. It is used to diminish the positive meaning. E.g.:
He is no coward - He is a brave man.
He is not a silly man - He is a clever man.
In this case we have intentional restrain which produces a stylistic effect. "Not silly"
is not equal to clever" although the two constructions are synonymous. The same can
be said about the other pair: "no coward" and "a brave man". In both cases the
negative construction is weaker than the affirmative one. But it should be noted that
the negative constructions here have a stronger impact on the reader than the
affirmative ones. The latter have no additional connotation; the former have. That is
why such constructions are regarded as stylistic devices.
Thus litotes is a deliberate understatement used to produce a stylistic effect. It is
not a pure negation, but a negation that includes affirmation. Therefore here we may
speak of transference of meaning, i.e., a device with the help of which two meanings
are materialized simultaneously: the direct (negative) and transferred (affirmative).
The stylistic effect of litotes depends mainly on intonation:
1. It troubled him not a little.
2. Mr. Bardwell was a man of honor - Mr. Bardwell was a man of his
word - Mr. Bardwell was no deceiver... (Dickens)
The negation does not indicate the absence of the quality mentioned, but suggests
the presence of the opposite quality. In one of the above given examples the litotes "no
deceiver" is clearer and more emphatic because of the preceding phrases "a man of
honor", "a man of his word". Thus like other stylistic devices litotes displays a
simultaneous materialization of two meanings: one
negative, the other affirmative. This interplay of two grammatical meaning is keenly
felt, that the affirmation suppresses the negation. The two senses of the litotes
expression, negative and positive, serve a definite stylistic effect.

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 In litotes we have two meanings of quality - positive and negative. The positive
meaning is in opposition to the negative meaning. The negative part is under double
stress. This double stress helps to overestimate the whole construction. In usual
negative constructions we do not have double stress and emphasis.
Litotes as a stylistic device must not be mixed up with logical negation.
Sometimes litotes serves to make a negative statement less categorical.
Litotes is used in different styles of speech but official and scientific prose.
The stylistic effeciT of litotes depends mainly on intonation. If we compare
two intonation patterns, one which suggests a mere denial (It is not bad as a contrary
to It is-bad) with the other which suggests the assertion of a positive quality of the
object (It is not bad=it is good), the difference will become apparent. The degree to
which litotes carries the positive quality in itself can be estimated by analysing the
semantic structure of the word which is negated.
Let us examine the following sentences in which litotes is used:
1. "Whatever defects the tale possessed—and they were not a few—it had, as
delivered by her, the one merit of seeming like truth."
2. "He was not without taste..."
3. "It troubled him not a little..:'
4. "He found that this was no easy task."
5. "He was no gentle lamb, and the part of second fiddle would never do for the
high-pitched dominance of his nature." (Jack London)
6. "She was wearing a fur coat... Carr, the enthusiastic appreciator of smart
women and as good a judge of dress as any man to be met in a Pall Mall club, saw
that she was no country cousin. She had style, or 'devil', as he preferred to call it."
Even a superfluous analysis of the litotes in the above sentences clearly shows
that the negation does not merely indicate the absence of the quality mentioned but
suggests the presence of the opposite quality. Charles Bally, a well-known Swiss
linguist, states that negative sentences are used with the purpose of "refusing to
affirm".

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 In sentences 5 and 6 where it is explained by the context, litotes reveals its true
function. The idea of 'no gentle lamb' is further strengthened by the 'high-pitched
dominance of his nature'; the function and meaning of 'no country cousin' is made
clear by 'as good a fudge of dress...', 'she had style...'. Thus, like other stylistic
devices, litotes displays a simultaneous materialization of two meanings: one
negative, the other affirmative. This interplay of two grammatical meanings is keenly
felt, so much so indeed, that the affirmation suppresses the negation, the latter . being
only the form in which the real pronouncement is moulded. According to the science
of logic, negation as a category can hardly express a pronouncement. Only an
assertion can do so. That is why we may say that any negation only suggests an
assertion. Litotes is a means by which this natural logical and linguistic property of
negation can be strengthened. The two senses of the litotic expression, negative and
positive, serve a definite stylistic purpose.
A variant of litotes is a construction with two negations, as in not unlike, not
unpromising, not displeased and the like. Here, according to general logical and
mathematical principles, two negatives make a positive. Thus in the sentence—
"Soames, with his lips and his squared chin was not unlike a bull dog" (Galsworthy),
the litotes may be interpreted as somewhat resembling. In spite of the fact that such
constructions make the assertion more logically apparent, they lack precision. They
may truly be regarded as deliberate understatements, whereas the pattern structures of
litotes, i. e. those that have only one negative are much more categorical in stating the
positive quality* of a person or thing.
Gradation
Gradation presents a structure in which every successive sentence or phrase
(new concept) is emotionally stronger or logically more important than the
preceding one. E.g.:

1. “For that one instant there was no one else in the room, in the house,
in the world, besides themselves…”(Wilson)
2. It was a lovely city, a beautiful city, a fair city.
3. The human heart has hidden treasures,
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 In secret kept, in silence sealed, -
The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures
Whose charms were broken if revealed. (Ch. Bronte`)
Correspondingly, in the third example each word of the structural unit
coming one after the other (the thoughts, the hopes the dreams the pleasures) is
understood to be more convincing in the revealing the author’s idea.
Such an organization of the utterance creates a gradual intensification of its
significance, both the logical and emotive and attracts the reader’s attention more
completely.
Of course, there are no objective linguistic criteria to estimate the degree of
importance or significance of each constituent. It is only the analysis of synonym
that helps us to feel the increase.
There is also a case when every successive part of a climax is expressed by a
word presenting a less significant concept, so that instead of increase there is a
certain decrease of logical importance and emotion:
“No tree, no shrub, no blade of grass… that was not owned”. (Galsworthy)
A gradual increase in significance may be maintained in three ways; logical,
emotional and quantitative.
Logical climax is based on the use of a successive unit which is stronger
than the preceding one from the point of view of its meaning:
“Threaten him, imprison him, torture him, kill him; you will never
induce him to betray his country”.
The word “kill” is the strongest in meaning among all these contextual
synonyms.
Emotional climax is based on the relative emotional tension produced by
words of emotional meaning.
Your son is very ill – seriously ill- desperately ill.
Of course, emotional climax, based on synonymous words with emotional
meaning will cause certain semantic differences in these words – such is the

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linguistic nature of stylistic synonyms, but emotional meaning will be the
prevailing one. Here is another example:
“He was pleased when the child began to adventure across floors on
hand and knees; he was gratified, when she managed the trick of
balancing herself on two legs; he was delighted when she first said
“ta-ta”, and eh was rejoiced when she recognized him and smiled at
him ”. (Alan Paton)
Very often every successive member of a climax is a natural logical
consequence of the preceding one:
“I swear to God I never saw the beat of this winter. More snow, more
cold, more sickness, more death”. (M. Wilson)
Quantitative climax presupposes the use of hyperbole:
1. “Farmers’ wives who had strength, endurance and energy of
locomotives and the appetites of dinosaurs”. (B. Macdonald)
2. “They looked at hundreds of houses; they climbed thousands of
stairs; they inspected innumerable kitchens”. (S. Maugham)

Climax like many other stylistic devices, is a means by which the author
discloses his world outlook.
The main syntactical pattern of climax consists of a clause or sentences
based on lexical repetition.
The stylistic function of this stylistic device is to show the importance of
things in the utterance, to show the significance of things described and to show
the dynamic development of the same process
Antithesis
Antithesis is a stylistic device, which is based on the opposition of concepts.
There are logical and stylistic opposition implies the use of dictionary antonyms,
i.e. words that are contrary in meaning to others: white – black, day – night, long
– short, young – old, etc.
Stylistic opposition is based on relative opposition, which arises out of the
context through the expansion of objectively contrasting pairs, as in:
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 Youth is lovely, age is lonely,
Youth is fiery, age is frosty. (Longfellow)
Here the objectively contrasted pairs are “youth - age”, fiery – frosty”.
“Lovely” and “lonely” cannot be regarded as objectively opposite concepts.
It is not only the semantic aspect, which explains the linguistic nature of
antithesis; the structural pattern also plays an important role. Antithesis is
generally moulded in parallel construction:
“We are young, friend, like the flowers,
You are old, friend, like the tree,
What concern have you with ours?
You are dying, we’re to be
It is very true, I’m dying,
You are roses still in bud…” (J. Mansfield)
In this poem antithesis is based on the following oppositions: young – old,
flowers – trees, dying – to be; only the first opposition “young – old” may be
considered as dictionary antonyms, the rest are contextual antonyms, and bring
emphasis to the whole poem.
The use of antithesis built on the contextual antonyms is clearly seen in the
next example:
“They speak like saint and act like devils.
Better to reign in the hell than serve in heaven”.
In this passage antithesis is based on the following oppositions: saint –
devil, to reign – to serve, hell – heaven. These pairs are contextual antonyms, and
bring emphasis to the text.
Antithesis often comes with many stylistic devices such as repetition,
parallel construction, epigram and others:
“If there were no bad people, there would be good lawyers” (Dickens).
As a rule antithesis displays one of the functions more clearly than the others.
This function will then be the leading one in the given utterance
Allusions

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 An allusion is a reference, by word or phrase, to a historical, literary,
mythological, biblical fact or to a fact of everyday life made in the course of
speaking or writing. The use of allusion is based on the accumulated experience
and knowledge of the writer who presupposes a similar experience and
knowledge in the reader. As a rule no indication of the source is given. This is
one of the notable differences between quotation and allusion. Allusions and
quotations may be termed nonce-set expressions because they are used only for
the occasion.
Allusion, as has been pointed out, needs no indication of the source. It is
assumed to be known. Therefore most allusions are made to facts with which the
general reader should be familiar. However allusions are sometimes made to
things and facts, which need commentary before they are understood. To these
belongs the allusion-paradox, for example:
A nephew called Charlie is something I can’t.
Put up with at all since it makes me his aunt.
The allusion here is made to a well-known play and later film “Charlie’s
Aunt” in which a man is disguised as a woman.
Sometimes allusion is the only key, which is used in the text to understand
the whole meaning of the text.
Allusions are used in different functional styles, but their function is
everywhere the same. The deciphering of an allusion, however, is not always
easy. In newspaper headlines allusions may be decoded at first glance. E.g.: “Pie
in the sky for Railmen”. (Daily Worker). The most people in the USA and Britain
know the refrain of the workers` song: “You’ll get pie in the sky when you die”.
The use of part of the sentence-refrain implies that the railmen had been
given many promises but nothing at the present moment. Linguistically the
allusion “pie in the sky” assumes a new meaning – “nothing but promises.”
Through frequency of repetition it may enter the word stock of the English
language as a figurative synonym.

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 We distinguish two structural types of allusion. The first type is when
allusion is realized through one word or a word combination. In this case the
reference is made to certain famous names, events or facts: Henry VIII, Ann
Boylein, Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, Voterloo.
The second type of allusion is realized through its interpretation, so to say
explanation given in the text.
In the following example the allusion which is based on a biblical legend,
embraces several ideas and may be called sustained:

And had it been the dove from Noah’s ark

Returning there from her successful search,
Which in their way that moment chanced to fall,
They would have ate her, olive brance and all. (Byron)

Byron gives the biblical legend a slightly humorous interpretation.

Allusions hinting at well-known situations help the writer to be more
explicit and clear. The stylistic function of allusion is various: either to make
comparison, or to produce a humorous effect.
Represented Speech

It is difficult to give a precise and unitary definition of Represented Speech and Thought
(RST) but, in a recent paper, Schlenker (2004) suggested that a hallmark of RST is
that, whereas the deictics (including tenses) in ordinary discourse are resolved
on the Context of Utterance
(speaker,a hearer, a time of utterance, ,a hearer, a time of utterance, and a world of uttera
nce), in RST they are resolved on the Context of Thought, that is relative to the origins of
the thought (a thinker, a time of thought, and a world of thought). In European
languages, such as French and English, novels are usually written in the past
tense. In French, there are two simple past tenses, a progressive tense (imparfait)
and an accomplished tense (passé simple). In English, there is a single
simple past tense, ambiguous between a progressive and an accomplished reading.

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 Represented speech ] – the presentation of arepri'zentid'spi:t[ character’s
thoughts, ideas, and feelings. It splits into the following types:
- Inner (Unuttered), which presents a character’s unspoken thoughts and feelings. It
abounds in exclamatory words and phrases, elliptical constructions, breaks, and other
means of conveying the feelings and psychological state of the character.
E.g.: An idea had occurred to Soames. His cousin Jolyon was Irene’s trustee, the first
step would be to go down and see him at Robin Hill. Robin Hill! The odd – the very
odd feeling those words brought back. Robin hill – the house Bosinney had built for
him and Irene – the house they had never lived in – the fatal house! And Jolyon lived
there now! Hm! (J. Galsworthy)
It is usually introduced by verbs of mental perception, such as think, mediate, feel,
occur, wonder, ask, tell oneself, understand, etc.
E.g.: ^ Over and over he was asking himself: would she receive him? Would she
recognize him? What should he say to her?
Why weren’t things going well between them?” he wondered.
Uttered, which is a character’s actual utterance representation by the author as if it
had been spoken, whereas it has not really been spoken. In it the tense is switched
from present to past, and personal pronouns are changed from first and second to
third person as in indirect speech, but the syntactical structure of the utterance does
not change.
E.g.: ^ Old Jolyon was on the alert at once. Wasn’t the “man of property” going to
live in his new house, then? He never alluded to Soames now but under this title.
“No, - June said – “he was not; she knew that he was not!”
How did she know? She could not tell him, but she knew. She knew nearly for
certain.”(J. Golsworthy)

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SYNTACTICAL EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES

A. General Considerations

It is well known that the study of the sentence and its types and especially the
study of the relations between different parts of the sentence has had a long history.
Modern grammars have taken under observation the peculiarities of the relations
between the members of the sentence, but the study of units of speech larger than the
sentence is still being neglected by many linguists.
Stylistics takes as the object of its analysis the expressive means and stylistic
devices of the language which are based on some significant structural point in an
utterance, whether it consists of one sentence or a string of sentences.
The peculiarities of the structural design of sentences certainly have some
emotional colouring and that's why they are considered stylistic and emotionally
coloured. In order to understand the nature of the emotional charge of such syntactical
structures, we must be aware of the norm of syntactical usage. By the norm of
syntactical usage we mean the rules of the language according to which the word
combinations, sentences, super phrasal units, paragraphs and texts constructed.
In present English syntax the notion of the norm is fixed but any change in the
position of the elements of the sentence may be looked upon as a variant of the
received norm, if this change does not distort the meaning of the sentence.
It is well known that the English affirmative sentence is viewed as neutral
because traditionally it has the regular word order: subject + predicate + object. Any
change in the traditionally accepted pattern of the English sentence produces certain
changes of the meaning. For example, a sudden change in the word order will add some
information if compared with the same neutral sentence. E.g.:
To her and to no one else was due the glory.(J.K. Jerome):
The glory was due to her and to no one else.
The beginning and the end of the sentence are the most important parts of
utterance. At the beginning of the sentence the full force of the stress is clearly felt. At
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the end of the sentence there is always a pause, after which a new sentence begins.
The authors use this peculiarity of syntax and place the most important ideas either at
the end or at the beginning of the sentence.
When we speak about syntax we must always remember about intonation. The
role of intonation becomes greater if the syntactical relations are weak.
The emotional charge of syntax originates from the oral type of speech. The basis
may be different in each case. Sometimes the speaker may be in an agitated state of
mind. In such cases he repeats or omits certain parts of the utterances (repetition,
ellipsis), he may change the word order of the sentence without changing the essential
meaning of the sentence (inversion). The speaker may enumerate some details, reasons,
causes in order to make his narration more convincible (enumeration and gradation).
The narration becomes bright and emotional if we oppose some facts or events
(antithesis). Different types of questions are integral parts of communication
(questions-in-the narrative).
Another source of expressiveness of syntax is associated with different means of
connectives (asyndeton, polysyndeton). Finally, we may note a different use of
structural meanings (rhetorical questions and litotes).
We distinguish three groups of syntactical stylistic devices. Th e f i r s t - stylistic
devices established by the peculiarities of oral type of speech. The s e c o n d g r o u p
of stylistic devices is characterized by the use of different connectives. The t h i r d
g r o u p of syntactical stylistic devices is based of the interrelation of structural meaning.

Problems Concerning the Composition Wider than the Sentence

The Syntactical Whole

The term s y n t a c t i c a l w h o l e is used to denote a larger unit than a sentence. It
generally comprises a number of sentences interdependent structurally and
semantically. Such span of utterance is also characterized by the fact that it can be
extracted from the context without losing its relative semantic independence. This

84
cannot be said of the sentence, which, while representing a complete syntactical unit
may lose the quality of independence. A sentence from the stylistic point of view
does not necessarily express one idea. It may express only part of an idea. Thus the
sentence "Guy glanced at his wife's untouched plate" if taken out of the context will
be perceived as a part of a larger utterance.
Here is the complete syntactical whole:
Guy glanced at his wife's untouched plate.
"If you've finished we might stroll down.
I think you ought to be starting".
She did not answer. She rose from the table. She
went into her room to see that nothing had been
forgotten and then side by side with him walked
down the steps. (S. Maugham)
So the syntactical whole may be defined as a combination of sentences. Any
syntactical whole will lose its unity if it suffers breaking.
A syntactical whole, though usually a part of the paragraph, may occupy the
whole of the paragraph. In this case we say mat the syntactical whole coincides with
the paragraph.
Word order has peculiarities in many languages. So, the direct word order in
Modern English is a well-known fact for everybody. This word order is considered to
be neutral and deprived of any stylistic information. But according to the writers aim
the word order may be changed in the sentence after which the emphasis springs up.
Thus the violation of the traditional word order of the sentence (subject - predicate -
object - adverbial modifier) which does not alter the meaning of the sentence only
giving it an additional emotional colouring is called stylistic inversion. For example:
"Rude am I in my speech". (Shakespeare) - the speech is emphasized.
Stylistic inversion in Modern English should not regarded as a violation of the
norms of standard English. It is only the practical realization of the potential possibi-
lities of the language.

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 Stylistic inversion is used to single out some parts of the sentence and
sometimes to heighten the emotional tension.
"Suddenly the door opened and entered the Baron. Followed a complete and deathlike
silence". (Mansfield)
Stylistic inversion is realized in the following widely used patterns:
1. The object is at the beginning of the sentence:
a) a direct object. E.g.: "Poems he wanted to enjoy". (O. Wilde);
b) an indirect object. E.g.: "This question he did not answer". (O. Wilde); ^Talent
Mr. Micawber has, capital Mr. Micawber has not". (Dickens);
c) the prepositional object stands before the subject. E.g.: "Of her father Gertrude
knew even less". (S. Lea-cock).
2. The attribute is placed after the word it modifies:
“With fingers weary and worn”. (The Hood)
3. The predicative is placed before the subject:
“And very melancholy work it was; Beautiful these donkeys were”. (J.
Galsworthy)
The predicative is placed before the link verb and both are placed before the
subject.
“Strange is the heart of woman”. (S. Leacock)
4. The adverbial modifier is at the beginning of the sentence. The subject
becomes especially emphatic:
“Among them stood tulips”. (R. Aldington)
5. The modifier and predicate stand before the subject.
“Down went the heap of struggling men against”. (H. Wells)
In this case we have an emphatic construction, if the word order is traditional the
construction is unemphatic.
6. Simple verbal predicate also serves to lay the emphatic stress on the subject:
“Came frightful days of snow and rain”. (J. London).

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 7. In compound sentences emphasis can be expressed when subordinate clauses
stand at the beginning of the sentence:
“From some chimney opposite a thin wreathe of smoke was rising”. (O. Wilde)

Parallel Constructions
Constructions formed by the same syntactical pattern, closely following one
another present the stylistic device of parallelisms. E.g.:
1. Talent Mr. Micawber has, capital Mr. Mic-awber has not. (Dickens)
2. Nostrils wide, ...his senses picked up something alien in the atmosphere.
Naked body, ...his dark eyes searched the distance. (Prichard)
Parallel is strongly affects the rhythmical organization of the paragraph, so it is
imminent in oratorical speech:
"The pulsating of Malay camp at night was everywhere. People sung. People
cried. People fought. People loved. People hated. Others sad. Others gay. Others
with friends. Others lonely. Some were born. Some died/' (P. Abrahams)
Parallelism can be completed when the construction of the second sentence rally
copies that of the first one:
"The sky was dark and gloomy, the air damp and raw, the streets wet and
sloppy." (Dickens)
The ellipsis in the example is repeated completely. Parallelism can be p a r t i a l when
only the beginning or the end of several sentences are structurally similar:
"Men's talk was better than women's... Not the state of the house but the state of the
Army. Not the children next door but the rebels in France. Not what broke the china
but who broke the treaty. Not what spoiled the washing but who spilled the beans..."
(Du Maurier)
Here only the frame of successive sentences remains unchanged: not the...but" while
the structure of each separate sentence is independent from its neighbours.
In a vast quantity of cases parallelism is strengthened by repetition or antithesis.

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Parallel constructions are used in different styles with different stylistic functions. In
belles-lettres style it carries an emotive function.
It is also used as a means in building up other stylistic devices, in particular
antithesis and climax.
There are two main functions of parallel constructions: semantic and structural.
The first construction implies either equal semantic significance or opposition of the
repeated parts. The second implies a rhythmical design to the parts of the parallel
construction.
Chiasmus
C h i a s m u s belongs to the group of stylistic devices based on the repetition of
a syntactical pattern, but it has a cross order of words and pnrases. The structure of
two successive sentences or parts of a sentence may be described as reversed parallel
construction, the word order of one of the sentences being inverted as compared to
that of the other, i.e. if the first sentence has a direct word order, the second sentence
has an indirect word order. E.g.:"They had accepted their failure. Their fate they
couldn't accept." (Byron)
Chiasmus has been originated from the emphatic expression of the spoken
language. But in the written type of speech it is typified and generalized and thus
becomes a stylistic device.
Chiasmus is sometimes achieved by a sudden change from active voice to passive
or vice versa."The register of his burial was s i g n e d by the clergyman, the clerk, the
undertaker and the chief mourner. Scrooge s i g n e d it." (Dickens)

The sudden change in the structure helps to lay stress on the second part of the
utterance. This sudden change requires a slight pause before the second part. You
forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to
forget."(Cormac McCarthy, The Road, 2006"
"Fair is foul, and foul is fair."
(William Shakespeare, Macbeth I.i) "Your manuscript is both good and original; but
the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good."
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(Samuel Johnson) "If black men have no rights in the eyes of the white men, of
course the whites can have none in the eyes of the blacks." (Frederick Douglass, "An
Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage")"The art of progress is to preserve order
amid change and to preserve change amid order." (Alfred North Whitehead)

Repetition
R e p e t i t i o n as an expressive means of language serves to emphasize certain
statements of the speaker, and so possesses considerable emotive force. It is employed
when the sp3eaker is under the stress of strong emotion. E.g.:
Behold Mrs. Baffin...running to Bella and folding her to her breast with the words:
"My dear, dear, dear girl, that Noddy and me saw married... My dear, dear, dear wife
of John and mother of his little child! My loving, loving, bright, bright, pretty, pretty!
Welcome to your house and home, my dear!" (Dickens)
The overflow of Mrs. Baffin’s emotions is shown through the multiple repetition
here.
We shall mention several main types of repetition, most frequently occurring in
English literature:
1. A n a p h o r a - the repeated word or phrase stands at
the beginning of each sentence, clause or phrase:
"...good-bye, Susan, good-bye a big car, good-bye big house, good-bye
power, good-bye the silly handsome dreams."
2. E p i p h o r a -'the repeated unit is placed at the end of consecutive sentences, clauses
and phrases:
"Through his brain slowly shifted the things they had done together. Walking
together. Dancing together. Sitting silent together. Watching people together." (P.
Abrahams)
In these cases repetition has the function of creating the background against which
the preceding statements become more prominent.
3. A n a d i p l o s i s or C a t c h r e p e t i t i o n - the repetition of the same unit at the end
of the preceding and the beginning of the following sentence:

89
 "Failure meant poverty, poverty meant squ-alor; squalor led in the final stage to
stagnation.
4. F r a mi n g or R i n g r e p e t i t i o n - the repetition of the same unit at the beginning
and at the end of the same sentence. Framing makes the whole utterance more compact
and more complete:
"Poor doll's dressmaker! How often so dragged down by hands that should have
raised her up; how often so misdirected when losing her way on the eternal road and
asking guidance! Poor, little dolls dressmaker r (Dickens)
It is expressive in poetry and in singling out a paragraph in prose.
5. C h a i n r e p e t i t i o n ' - the last word or phrase of one part of an utterance is
repeated at the beginning of the next part, thus hooking the two parts together:
"But two minutes later the sun vanished behind flying cloudy contents, a
relative darkness realistic. (J. Steinbeck)
5. Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!
Bright and yellow, hard and cold. (Th. Hood)
6. Scrooges went to bed again, and thought, and thought, and thought it over and
over and over. (Dickens)
7. Never wonder. By means of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division,
settle everything somehow, and never wonder. (Dickens)
8. With Berwick on my knee, I was then happy: happy at least in my way. (Ch.
Bronte)
9. ...The river, playing round the boat, prattles strange old tales and secrets, sings
low the old child's song that it has sung so many thousand years - will sing so many
thousand years - will sing so many thousand years to come, before its voice grows
harsh and old - a song that we...understand, though we could not tell you in mere
words the story that we listen to. (J. K. Jerome)
10. We were...talking about how bad we were - bad from a medical point of
view I mean, of course. (J.K.Jerome)
11. Three fishers went sailing out into the West,

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 Out into the West, as the sun went down... (King-slay)
12. The water rose and rose. (Dickens)
13. The woman talked and talked. (Hutchinson)
V Explain the case of anaphora in the following extracts.
1. Farewell to the mountains high covered with snow! Farewell to the starts and
green valleys below! Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods! Farewell to the
torrents and loud-pouring floods! (Burns)
2. For the first time in her life, Louisa had come into one of the dwellings of the
Coketown hands; for the first time in her life she was face to face with anything like
individuality in connection with them. (Dickens)
3. I might as well face facts: good-bye, Susan, goodbye a big car, good-bye a
big house, good-bye a power, good-bye the silly handsome dreams. (J. Braine)

Enumeration
E n u m e r a t i o n is a stylistic device by means of which objects, actions or
properties are listed one after another. The list may produce different impression on the
reader. Each word is closely associated semantically with the following and
preceding words in the enumeration. It occurs when these objects belong to one and
the same group of notions. E.g.:"Harris grew more cheerful. George suggested meat
and fruit pies, cold meat, tomatoes, fruit and green stuff." (J.K.Jerome)
All objects enumerated in this sentence belong to the group of notions defining
"food".
There are cases when enumeration is based on the dissimilarity of notions:
"Throw the lumber over, man! Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what
you need -a homely home and simple pleasures, one br two friends worth the name,
someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough
drink'. (J. K. Jerome)
From the semantic point of view we distinguish two types of enumeration:
h o mo g e n e o u s and h e t e r o g e n e o u s . The grouping of quite different notions in

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one sentence produces much impression on the reader. In the example given above
the nouns home, pleasure, friends, a cat, a dog,. pipe, drink constitute the
heterogeneous enumeration.
Other parts of speech such as verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and participles may easily be used in
enumeration:
“The situation must be remedied, and the first step towards a remedy was to cry. She cried, she
wept, she sobbed, she shrieked, she kicked, she fought vacancy and silence with her angry fists. No
result. No audience.” (A. Bennett)
In the following example we see the use of different grammatical forms, which constitute
enumeration. From the semantic point of view they denote things, which belong to different groups of
notions:
“For some time now their small house had been a scene where washing, drying and ironing of
clothes, discovery renovation of suitcases, unfolding of maps and discussion of trains and seat
reservation and weather, had gone on without intermission until Mor had been obliged to invent
excuses for staying in school”. (I. Murdoch)
The stylistic function of enumeration may be different: it may suggest the rapidly changing
impressions of the scenery. Sometimes enumeration helps to reveal the inner state of the character’s
mind .

Particular Ways of Combining Parts of the Utterance

Asyndeton
The connection of sentences, phrases or words without any conjunctions is called
a stylistic device of asyndeton. Here is a deliberate omission of connectives where
they are expected to be according to the norms of the literary language.
I insist: it will give me the greatest pleasure, I assure you. My car is in the stable: I
can get it round in five minutes. (B. Shaw)

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 The deliberate omission of "for" before "it will give..." and "so" before "I can get
it..." in above example Kelps the author to make each phrase or word sound
independent and significant.
Asyndeton generally creates an effect that the enumeration is not completed as in
the above example.
Asyndeton also creates a certain rhythmical arrangement, usually making the
narrative measured and energetic:
She watched them go; she said nothing; it was not to begin then. (W.Faulkner)
. Polysyndeton
Polysyndeton is the stylistic device of connecting sentences, phrases, syntagms or
words by using connectives (mostly conjunctions and prepositions) before each com-
ponent part. For example:
"And I looked at the piles of plates and cups, and kettles, and bottles, and
jars, and pies, and stoves, and cakes, and tomatoes." (J. K. Jerome)
In this utterance conjunction "and" is used as polysyndeton. It stresses the similar
nature or close connection between parts of the sentence.
In the following passage from Longfellow's "The Song of Hiawatha", there is a
repetition both of conjunctions and prepositions:
"Should you ask me whence these stories?
Whence these legends and traditions,
With the odors of the forest,
With the dew, and damp of meadows,
With the curling smoke of wigwams,
With the rushing of great rivers,
With their frequent repetitions,..."
The repetition of conjunctions and other means of connection makes an utterance
more rhythmical. The conjunctions and other connectives, being generally unstressed
30elements, when placed before each meaningful member becomes the essential
requirement of rhythm in verse. So one of the functions of polysyndeton is a
rhythmical one.
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 Polysyndeton has a disintegrating function. It combines homogeneous elements
into one whole like enumeration. But unlike enumeration, which integrates both
homo-generous and heterogeneous elements into one whole, polysyndeton causes
each member of a string to stand apart. Enumeration shows things united; polysyn-
deton shows them isolated.

Ellipsis
The deliberate omission of one or more words in the sentence for definite stylistic
purpose is called the stylistic device of ellipsis. E.g.:
"The ride did Ma good. Rested her." (D. Carter)
The second sentence in the above example is elliptical, as the subject of the
sentence is omitted. In grammar and rhetoric, the omission of one or more words,
which must be supplied by the listener or reader. Adjective: elliptical or elliptic.
Plural, ellipses.In her book Developing a Written Voice (1993), Dona Hickey notes
that ellipsis encourages readers to "supply what isn't there by stressing heavily what
is." From the Greek, "to leave out" or "fall short"

"The streets were deserted, the doors bolted." [Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco,]
"His brow was furrowed, his mouth peevish." (P.G. Wodehouse, Leave It to Psmith,
1923) Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to
say something."(Plato)"Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity a greater." (William
Hazlitt)"In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear
less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness
weakness." Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854)

"Ellipsis can be an artful and arresting means of securing economy of expression.

We must see to it, however, that the understood words are grammatically compatible.
If we wrote, 'The ringleader was hanged, and his accomplices imprisoned,' we would
be guilty of a solecism, because the understood was is not grammatically compatible
with the plural subject (accomplices) of the second clause."
(Edward P.J. Corbett and Robert Connors, Classical Rhetoric for the Modern
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Student. Oxford Univ. Press, 1999)
An ellipsis is a series of three dots, used to create a pause in thinking or, when
quoting, to omit information. Four dots can also be used at the end of a sentence to
finish off ominously. That would actually be three dots and a period.
For example: The man looked above . . . all he could see were three black silhouettes
against the bright blue sky. When the man looked above he couldn't quite believe
what he saw . . .
An ellipsis is also a rhetorical device in literature (in plain English, another way to
write a unique sentence). Its definition is "The deliberate omission of a word or
words readily implied by context." Ellipsis (plural ellipses; from the Ancient Greek:
ἔλλειψις, élleipsis, "omission" or "falling short") is a series of dots that usually
indicate an intentional omission of a word, sentence or whole section from the
original text being quoted, and though necessary for syntactical construction, is not
necessary for comprehension. Ellipses can also be used to indicate an unfinished
thought or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence (aposiopesis), example:
"But I thought he was . . ." When placed at the beginning or end of a sentence, the
ellipsis can also inspire a feeling of melancholy or longing. The ellipsis calls for a
slight pause in speech or any form of text, and can be used to suggest a tense or
awkward momentary silence.

The most common form of an ellipsis is a row of three periods or full stops (. . .) or
a precomposed triple-dot glyph (…). The usage of the em dash (—) can overlap the
usage of the ellipsis. The Chicago Manual of Style recommends that an ellipsis be
formed by typing three periods, each with a space on both sides.The triple-dot
punctuation mark is also called a suspension point, points of ellipsis, periods of
ellipsis, or colloquially, "dot-dot-dot"It is used to build tension or show that the
sentence has been left unfinished or unstarted. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, an
ellipsis was often used when a writer intentionally omitted a specific proper noun,
such as a location: "Jan was born on . . . Street in Warsaw." As commonly used, this

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juxtaposition of characters is referred to as "dots of ellipsis" in the English language.
Occasionally, it would be used in pulp fiction and other works of early 20th-century
fiction to denote expletives that would otherwise have been censored.An ellipsis may
also imply an unstated alternative indicated by context. For example, when Count
Dracula says "I never drink . . . wine"; the implication is that he does drink something
else. In reported speech, the ellipsis is sometimes used to represent an intentional
silence, perhaps indicating irritation, dismay, shock or disgust. In poetry, this is used
to highlight sarcasm or make the reader think about the last points in the poem. In
news reporting, often associated with brackets, it is used to indicate that a quotation
has been condensed for space, brevity or relevance.

Ellipsis can also be used to express irony, as in "Or… well", which, in this example,
segues to a separate thought while simultaneously referring back to Orwel. The
omission of some parts of the sentence is an ordinary and typical feature of the oral type
of speech. In belles-lettres style the peculiarities of the structure of the oral type of
speech are partially reflected in the speech of characters: "I'll see nobody for half an
hour, Marcey", -said the boss, "Understand? Nobody at all." (Mansfield). These are
normal syntactical structures in the spoken language. The omission of some parts of
the sentence in the above example reflects the informal and careless character of
speech.

Some parts of the sentence may be omitted due to the excitement of the speaker.
Such cases of omission of some parts of the sentence in the speech of characters
reflecting the natural structure of the oral type of speech are not considered a stylistic
device: Got a letter? Enjoy your holiday? My best wishes to your father! Had a good
time. The stylistic device of ellipsis is used in the author's narration and in the
represented speech to add emotional colouring or to underline the most important
information of the utterance: "Serve him right; he should arrange his affairs better! So
any respectable Forsyth." (J.Galsworthy)

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In the above example the predicate is omitted and the reader has to supply what is
missing. The stylistic device of ellipsis makes the sentence laconic and prominent. The
stylistic device of ellipsis used in represented inner speech creates a stylistic effect of
the natural abruptness:

Rhetorical question (from Greek ρήτωρ – “an orator”) – a statement reshaped into a
question, generally a complex one: Without a subordinate clause a rhetorical
question would lose its specific quality and might be regarded as an ordinary
question. Rhetorical questions are often asked in distress, or anger. E.g.: What have
I done to deserve this? (The implication: I have done nothing to deserve this.) What
shall I do when he comes? (The implication: I do not know what to do when he
comes.) Rhetorical questions can be based on negation. There is always an
additional shade of meaning implied in such rhetorical questions: doubt, assertion,
or suggestion. In this case it may be a simple sentence.E.g.: Have I not had to
wrestle with my lot? Have I not suffered things to be forgiven? (G. G. Byron

Detached constructions

Sometimes one of the secondary parts of a sentence by some specific consideration

of the writer is placed so that it seems formally independent of the word it logically
refers to. Such parts of structures are called detached. They seem to dangle in the
sentence as isolated parts. The detached part, being torn away from its referent,
assumes a greater degree of significance and is given prominence by intonation. The
structural patterns of detached constructions have not yet been classified, but the
most noticeable cases are those in which an attribute or an adverbial modifier is
placed not in immediate proximity to its referent, but in some other position, as in
the following examples:
1) "Steyne rose up, grinding his teeth, pale, and with fury in his eyes." (Thackeray)
2) "Sir Pitt came in first, very much flushed, and rather unsteady in his gait."
(Thackeray)

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Sometimes a nominal phrase is thrown into the sentence forming a syntactical unit
with the rest of the sentence, as in: "And he walked slowly past again, along the river
—an evening of clear, quiet beauty, all harmony and comfort, except within his
heart." (Galsworthy)
The essential quality of detached construction lies in the fact that the isolated
parts represent a kind of independent whole thrust into the sentence or placed in a
position which will make the phrase (or word) seem independent. But a detached
phrase cannot rise to the rank of a primary member of the sentence—it always
remains secondary from the semantic point of view, although structurally it possesses
all the features of a primary member. This clash of the structural and semantic aspects
of detached constructions produces the desired effect—forcing the reader to interpret
the logical connections between the component parts of the sentence. Logical ties
between them always exist in spite of the absence of syntactical indicators.
Detached constructions in their common forms make the written variety of language
akin to the spoken variety where the relation between the component parts is
effectively materialized by means of intonation. Detached construction, as it were,
becomes a peculiar device bridging the norms of written and spoken language.
This stylistic device is akin to inversion. The functions are almost the same. But
detached construction produces a much stronger effect, inasmuch as it presents parts
of the utterance significant from the author's point of view in a more or less
independent manner.
Here are some more examples of detached constructions:
"Daylight was dying, the moon rising, gold behind the poplars." (Galsworthy)
'"I want to go,' he said, miserable." (Galsworthy) "She was lovely: all of her—
delightful." (Dreiser)
The italicized phrases and words in these sentences seem to be isolated, but still
the connection with the primary members of the corresponding sentences is clearly
implied. Thus 'gold behind the poplars' may interpreted as a simile or a metaphor: the
moon like gold was rising behind the poplars, or the moon rising, it was gold...

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Detached construction sometimes causes the simultaneous realization of two
grammatical meanings of a word. In the sentence" 'I want to go,' he said, miserable",
the last word might possibly have been understood as an adverbial modifier to the
word said if not for the comma, though grammatically miserably would be expected.
The pause indicated by the comma implies that miserable is an adjective used
absolutely and referring to the pronoun he.
The same can be said about Dreiser's sentence with the word delightful. Here
again the mark of punctuation plays an important role. The dash standing before the
word makes the word conspicuous and, being isolated, it becomes the culminating
point of the climax— lovely… —delightful, i. e. the peak of the whole utterance. The
phrase all of her is also somehow isolated. The general impression suggested by the
implied intonation, is a strong feeling of admiration; and, as is usually the case,
strong feelings reject coherent and logical syntax. In the English language detached
constructions are generally used in the belles-lettres prose style and mainly with
words that have some explanatory function, for example: "June stood in front,
fending off this idle curiosity — a little bit of a thing, as somebody said, 'all hair and
spirit'..." (Galsworthy)
Detached construction as a stylistic device is a typification of the syntactical
peculiarities of colloquial language.
Detached construction is a stylistic phenomenon which has so far been little
investigated. The device itself is closely connected with the intonation pattern of the
utterance. In conversation any word or phrase or even sentence may be made more
conspicuous by means of intonation. Therefore precision in the syntactical structure
of the sentence is not so necessary from the communicative point of view. But it
becomes vitally important in writing.1 Here precision of syntactical relations is the
only way to make the utterance fully communicative. Therefore when the syntactical
relations become obscure, each member of the sentence that seems to be dangling
becomes logically significant.

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PHONETIC EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES.

General Notes

The stylistic approach to the utterance is not confined to its structure ana sense.
The sound of most words taken separately will have little or no aesthetic value. It is
in combination with other words that a word may acquire a desired phonetic effect.
Thus, different types of sound combinations may produce certain stylistic effect espe-
cially if they are properly used.
Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices are used for the purpose of
producing certain acoustic effect, giving emphasis to the utterance and arousing
emotions in the reader or the listener.
Euphony is such a combination of words and such an arrangement of utterance
which produces pleasing acoustic effect, that is a pleasing effect on the ear.
Euphony is generally achieved by such phonetic stylistic devices as alliteration,
onomatopoeia, rhythm, rhyme.
The laws of euphony in prose differ form the laws of euphony in poetry. Thus,
alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhythm and rhyme may have different application and
different stylistic effect in prose and poetry.

Onomatopoeia
O n o m a t o p o e i a is a use of words or combinations of words whose sounds
produce an imitation of natural sound. E.g.:
"And the great pines grown aghast" (Shelley)
The repetition of the sounds [g] and [r] is aimed at imitating the sounds of the
forest on a stormy night.
There are two varieties of onomatopoeia: direct and indirect.

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 D i r e c t o n o m a t o p o e i a is contained in words that imitate natural sounds, as
ding-dang, bang, cuckoo, mew, ping-pong and the like. These words have different
degrees of imitative quality.
Onomatopoeia words can be used in a transferred meaning, as for instance, ding-
dong, which represents the sound of bell's rung continuously. E.g.: ding-dong strug-
gle.
More examples of such variety of onomatopoeia are the following. E.g.: to croak
- the direct meaning is to make a deep harsh sound (about frogs and ravens), but in its
transferred meaning it denotes a hoarse human voice. Its contextual meaning may be:
to protest dismally, to predict evil ("KapKaxt" in Russian). Note the following example:
if that child doesn't stop whining, I'll drown it. In this sentence "whining" is used as
an onomatopoeic word and means "long-drawn complaining cry or high-pitched
sound made by a miserable dog (uzbek: FUHrniHMOK;).
I n d i r e c t o n o m a t o p o e i a is a combination of sounds the aim of which is to
make the sound of the utterance echo of its sense. It is sometimes called "echo-
writing". E.g.:
"And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain" (E. A. Poe).
Here repetition of the, sound [s] produces the sound of the rustling of the curtain.
Onomatopoeic words are divided into the following groups: 1. Words denoting
the sounds of movements: bang, boom, rustle, hum, crash, whip. 2. Words denoting
sounds appearing in the process of communication: babble, giggle, grumble,
murmur, whisper. 3. Sounds of animals, birds, insects: huzz, crackle, crow, hiss,
moo, mew, purr, roar. 4. The sound of water: splash. 5. The sound of metallic things:
clinc, tinkle, etc.
Alliteration
A l l i t e r a t i o n is a phonetic 'Stylistic device which aims at making a melodic
effect to the utterance. It is based on the reiteration of initial similar consonant
sounds in close succession, particularly at the beginning of successive word. E.g.:
And the day is dark and dreary; no pay, no play; fate and fortune.

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 Alliteration is generally regarded as a musical accompaniment of the authors idea,
supporting it with some vague emotional atmosphere which each reader interpretsfor
himself. Thus the repetition of a certain sound prompts the feeling of anxiety, fear,
horror, anguish or all these feelings simultaneously.
Alliteration is often used in poetry, emotive prose and the style of mass media
(specially headlines) as well as in proverbs and sayings.
In old English poetry alliteration was one of the basic principles of verse. That is
why it is widely used in folklore.
In old English poetry alliteration was one of the basic principles of verse and
considered to be its main characteristic. Each stressed meaningful word in a line had
to begin with the same sound or combination of sounds.
The tradition of folklore are stable and alliteration as a structural device of Old
English poems and songs has shown remarkable continuity. It is frequently used as a
well-tested means not only in verse but in emotive prose, in newspaper headlines.
In texts alliteration is used to attract the reader’s attention, to make certain parts of
the text more prominent : The place of light, of literacy and learning.
Live and learn. Look before you leap.
The titles of some books are alliterated: School for scandal; Sense and sensibility;
Silver Spoon.
Many proverbs and sayings are built on alliteration: safe and sound; blind as a bat;
neck or nothing out of the frying pan into the fire; to rob Peter to pay Paul.
In English belles-letters style alliteration is regarded as an emphatic phonetic means
that aims at producing a strong melodical and emotional effect.

Rhyme
Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar sound combinations of words.
Rhyming words are generally placed at a regular distance from each other. In
verse they are usually placed at the end of the corresponding lines. E.g.: say, day,
play; measure, pleasure.

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 So rhyme is most often used in poetry and performs different functions. One of
the leading functions is to make the expressions bright, easy to remember:
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea.
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and to be loved by me. (E. A. Poe)
Here we have the following rhymed words: ago -know, sea -Lee.
With regard to the similarity of sounds we distinguish the following types of
rhyme:
1) f u l l r h y m e s - the likeness between the vowel sound in the last stressed
syllables and between all sounds which follow. E.g.: tenderly- splendidly; finding -
binding.
2) i n c o m p l e t e r h y m e s - they can be divided into two main groups: v o w e l
r h y me s and consonant rhymes. In vowel rhymes the vowels of the syllables in
corresponding words are identical, but the consonants may be different as in flesh -
fresh. Consonant rhymes, on the contrary, show concordance in consonants an
disparity in vowels, as ii| worth - forth, tale - tool, treble - trouble, flung – lung.
Many proverbs, sayings and epigrams are based on the use of rhyme: When the cat’s
away, the mice will play (away-play). Repetition is the mother of tuition (repetition-
tuition).
Modifications in rhyming make one word rhyme with a combination of words;
or two or even three words rhyme with a corresponding two or three words, as in
upon her honour – won her; bottom – forgot’em – shot him. Such rhymes are called
compound or broken. The peculiarity of rhymes of this type is that the combination
of words is made to sound like one word – a device which gives a colloquial and
sometimes a humorous effect to the utterance.

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 Compound rhyme may be said against eye – rhyme, where the letters and not the
sounds are identical, as in love – prove, flood – brood, have – grave.
Many eye- rhymes are the result of the historical changes in the vowel sounds in
certain positions.
The rhymes are arranged in following models.
1. Couplet rhyme – when the first and the second lines rhyme together. The
rhyming scheme is symbolized as aa:
Away, away, from man and towns,
To the wild wood and the downs. (P. Shelley)
2. Triple rhymes - when all the three lines rhyme together. The rhyming
scheme is aaa.
3. Cross rhyme – when the first and the third, the second and the fourth
lines rhyme together. The rhyming scheme is ab ab:
Four seasons file the measure of the year ;
There are four seasons in the mind of man ;
He has his lasty Spring, when fancy clear
Takes in all beauty with an easy span. (J. Keats).
Frame rhyme – when the first and the fourth, the second and the third lines
rhyme together. The rhyming scheme is abba:
Love faithful love recall’d thee to my mind –
But how could I forget thee? Through what power
Even for the least division of an hour.
Have I been so beguiled as to be blind. (W. Wordstock)
There is still another variety of rhyme which is called internal rhyme. A long
line of verse is sometimes broken into two shorter parts by an internal rhyme:
1) I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers (Shelley)
2) Once upon a midnight dreary while I pondered weak and weary. (Poe).
There are so called rhyme combinations in the colloquial English. E. g. harum –
scarum (disorganized ), hurry – scarry (great hurry), lovey – dovey (darling),

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 mumbo – jumbo (deliberate mystification), namby - pamby (weakly). The
function of these rhymes is to produce a jocular effect, sometimes to give speech
characterization (especially of children ).
The function of rhyme in poetry are very important: it signalizes the end of a
line and marks the arrangement of lines into stanzas. Moreover, the most empathic
place in a poetic line – the end receives greater prominence.

Rhythm
Rhythm exists in all spheres of human activity and assumes multifarious form.
The stylistic device of rhythm is a regular alternation of stressed and unstressed
syllables in the utterance. Rhythmical arrangement may be found in prose too but it is
an inconsistent element of poetry:
Sweet and low, sweet and low,
Wind of the western sea,
Low, low, breathe and blow,
Over the rolling waters go. (A. Tennyson)
Rhythm is sometimes used by the author to produce the desired stylistic effect,
whereas in poetry rhythmical arrangement is constant organic element, a natural out-
come of poetic emotion.
Poetic rhythm is created by the regular use of stressed and unstressed syllables or
equal poetic lines. The regular alternations of stressed and unstressed syllables form a
unit- the foot.
There are five basic feet and consequently meters in English poetry: iambus,
trochee, dactyl, anapest and amphibrach.
1. Iambus is a foot consisting of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed
syllable:
My soul is dark - oh; quickly string
The harp I yet can brook to here, (fiyron)

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2. Trochee is a foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed
syllable:
Fare thee well! and if for ever
Still for ever, fare the well. (Byron)
3. Dactyl is a foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed
syllables:
Hail to the Chief who in triumph advances!
Honored and blessed be the ever-green piney (W.Scott)
4. Anapest is a foot consisting of two unstressed syllables followed by one
stressed syllable:
He is gone to the mountain,
He is Tost to the forest
Like a summer-dried fountain,
When our need was the sorest. (W. Scott)
5. Amphibrach is a foot consisting of one unstressed syllable followed by one
stressed and one unstressed syllable:
The waters are flashing,
The white hail is dashing,
The lightning are glancing,
The boar-spray is dancing. (Shelley)

I. Questions and Tasks

1.What are the peculiar features of phonetic stylistic devices?
.2. What is onomatopeo?
3. In what functional styles can rhythmical arrangement be found?
4. How is the poetic rhythm created?
5. Speak about ht formation of the foot.
6. What are basic feet of the of English poetry? Comment on every foot. Give
illustrations.
7. What is stylistic device of alliteration?
8. In what functional styles is alliteration often used?

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 TASKS OF TEXT ANALYSIS

The notion of fictional text

A fictional text (belles-lettres text), being one of the forms of literary

coitiiiiunication, has peculiar features which distinguish this text type from other
tonus of communication. The problem of fictional texts has received widespread
attention among linguists. The basic notions of fiction such as imagery, emotiveness,
implicitness, ambiguity, associative potential, creativity, semantic complexity were
discussed in the works by V.V. Vinogradov, B.A. Larin, G.O, Vinokur, R.O.
Jackobson and others.
A fictional text is regarded as one of the types of communication, that is literary
communication. This assumption raises the question: how to draw a clear line of
demarcation between literary and other types of communication. In other words, it is
necessary to define what features determine the specificity of the belles-lettres text. l.R.
Galperin indicates the following features of'this text-type:
1. genuine, not trite imagery achieved by means of stylistic devices;
2. the use of words in contextual, and very often in more than one dictionary
meaning;
3. the vocabulary which reflects to a greater or lesser degree the author’s personal
evaluation of things and phenomena;
4. a peculiar individual selection of vocabulary and syntax, a kind of lexical and
syntactical idiosyncrasy.
There were attempts to define the specificity of a fictional text in the pragmatic
perspective proceeding from the theory of speech acts based on the universal rules of
speech behaviour ((¡rice, 1985). However, in the process of'literary communication
these rules, as has been proved by many researchers, are constantly violated. It refers to
the so called “surplus'" informal ion peculiar to fictional texts. This information
violates the principle of “brevity" in communication. The principle of “truthfulness"

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applied to a fictional text is also of a very relative character. As is known, the fictional
text rellects nary world", it is not associated with the practical activity of commu-
nicants, and therefore it is devoid of factological accuracy.
With regard to fiction, T.A. van Dijk suggests the principle of constructiveness”
which is more adequate for literary communication. I'his principle postulates that the
author’s intention in the fictional text is by no means “practical” communication, but
the construction of “possible”, “imaginary'” worlds for the reader (1977
Linguostylistic analysis of the whole text
(The chosen method of analysis embraces the text in its totality) makes it possible
to reveal the structural-semantic organization of the imaginative text, the system of its
tropes, the author's ways of expressing the emotional evaluation of life situations
expressed in the text. As a result all this helps to reveal ideological and artistic
message of a literary work.
But only complex linguostylistic and linguopragmatic analysis will help
thoroughly understand a literary work, to give a correct evaluation of its role in the
life of society, to comprehend the factors determining the specificity of its artistic
organization.
Linguopragmatics is an aspect in the research of language, studying its units in
their relation to that person or persons, who use the language. That's why in
linguopragmatic researches the main accent falls on the man — both speaking or
writing (the speaker, the text's creater, the addresser) and listening or reading (the re-
cipient, the addressee).
In order to find the place of linguopragmatics in the interpretation of the text it is
necessary to acquaint oneself with the main conceptions of linguopragmatics.
Any kind of intercourse, including intercourse by means of a belles-lettres text,
presupposes a certain communicative-pragmatic situation. A pragmatic situation is a
complex of external conditions of intercourse which the speakers keep in mind at the
moment of realizing their speech act: who?—to whom?—about what?—for what?—
how?

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 We distinguish the following parameters of a communicative pragmatic situation:
1. environment and place of a communicative act
2. the subject of communication
3. the purpose of communication
4. the social status of the participants of communication (their class — social,
ideological characteristics); educational qualifications, background knowledge,
race affinity etc.
5. individual psychological characteristics of the communicants (sex, age, national
affinity, temperament etc).
Pragmatic information reflects some or other parametres of the communicative-
pragmatic situation and indicates which signs of the language system would be
appropriate in the concrete conditions of communication. As an example we can use a
tape-recorded scene of a morning greeting between the director of English language
courses and a junior teacher (Oxford, the mid-eighties): "Good morning, sir!—
Morning, Chris!" The pragmatic orientation in the selection of precisely these
language units, especially the diminutive form of the proper name is emphasized by
another scene, that took place that very evening in the director's mansion. Introducing
his three-year-old grandson, Mr.Kendly, reacting to the guests attempt to call the
child by a diminutive name insistently underlined: "He is Edward, not Eddy!"
Signals of pragmatic information are divided into language and non-language
ones. In the cited example the form of address serves as a language signal of social
characteristics of the communicants, to non-language signals we can refer the
interpreter's knowledge of social role relations in modern English society.
Each act of speech intercourse pursues a certain communicative aim. The problem
of studying how the communicative act influences, speech or non-speech conduct of
the addressee also belongs to the sphere of linguopragmatics. Only then, when the
addresser and addressee understand each other, communication, from the pragmatic
point of view, is considered to have realized. Only taking into account the pragmatic
impact, the speaker can make choice of language means and their combinatory.

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 Thus, Pragmatics of any text is one of its integral characteristic traits and that is
determined by the very nature of the text as the main unit of communication. Thus,
the process of communication alongside with the intellectual (factological, logical)
function of the language also realizes the emotional-evaluation and pragmatic func-
tions, which is simultaneously directed from the man and to the man. It is precisely
this process that manifests the social nature of the language and of the man as its
user.
The pragmatics of any type of the text includes the above stated parametres of the
communicative-pragmatic situation: who?— what?—to whom?—for what
purpose?—how? In the process of literary communication these parameters are
specified in the following way:
— the agent of speech (the creator of a belles-lettres text, the author);
— the subject of communication (fragment of objective reality; passed through the
individual perception of the agent of speech);
— the addressee (the mass reader, the critic interpreter);
— the purpose of communication (the pragmatic orientation of the agent of speech);
— the artistic organization of the text (its composition, the character of imagery, the
system of language and stylistic devices etc).
Consequently the complex analysis of a text besides the main linguostylistic analysis
also includes elements of linguopragmatic analysis: comprehension of the objective
reality conditions in which "the text was created, the personality of the author and the
character of the addressee. In other words the linguopragmatic analysis requires
studying the process of creating the text and its perception, i.e. it considers the text in
the system of relations: reality-author-literary work-reader.
Linguoculturological aspect of text theory
It is acknowledged that efficient communication is impossible “without deep and
wide background knowledge of native speakers’ culture which implies ways of life,
mentality, vision of the world, the national character, customs, beliefs, systems of
values, kinds of social behaviour” (Ter-Minasova, 1995).

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 The main postulates of this section are: a) there are close relationships between
language and culture; b) text is a means of studying culture, it is the main source of
cultural knowledge and information (Ольшанский, 2000; Маслова, 2007). In the
process of text production the choice of language forms and patterns is dictated, first of
all. by the author’s sociocultural intentions. So, the aim of this section is to study
various forms of culture manifestations in the text.
The shared features between text and culture are as follows: a) both text and culture
contain objective and subjective, logical and emotional elements; b) both text and
culture are meant to be interpreted. The above said testifies to the fact that there are
close links between text linguistics and linguoculturology. Linguoculturology, as is
well known, is a complex scientific discipline of the anthropocen- tric paradigm which
studies the correlations of culture and language (Ольшанский, 2000).
Linguoculturology is a rapidly expanding field at the interface between linguistics,
cultural studies, ethnolinguistics and sociolinguistics. However, it has its own integral
aspect of studying language and culture. Linguoculturology deals with the “deep level”
of semantics, and brings into correlation linguistic meanings and the concepts of
universal and national cultures. The aim of linguoculturology is to study linguistic
means with the help of which language embodies, stores and transfers culture
(Маслова, 2007).
Despite the fact that linguoculturology is a new trend in linguistics, there are different
approaches and aspects: phraseological(Телия, 1999). conceptological (Вежбицкая
1966), lexicographical (Степанов, 1997), and linguodidactical (Верещагин,
Костомаров, 1983). Along with these trends there is the so called “text-oriented” one
which regards text as an important unit of culture.
We fully support the view that texts are directly related to culture and penetrated by
a multitude of cultural codes. They accumulate and store information about history,
ethnography, national psychology, etc., and pass it on from generation to generation
(Маслова, 2007). From this standpoint text analysis is aimed to disclose cultural infor-
mation, to study the peculiar features of national mentality, to define culture relevant

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language means used in the text.

Elements of cognitive analysis

As suggested, a cognitive analysis may be given of all semantic structures (and

indeed other structures) of discourse. In what follows, however, a limited number of
typical discourse structures are mentioned which specifically (also) need a cognitive
analysis. We begin by global meaning structures and then pay attention to more local
meanings of discourses and sentences.

Topics

Topics are formally defined as (macro) propositions that can be derived from
sequences of (macro) propositions of a text. However, an empirically more adequate
definition of topics is given in terms of the global meaning assigned to or inferred
from (fragments of) discourse by language users. Such a global meaning may be
subjective or biased -- it need not be the same for the speaker and the recipient, nor
for various recipients. Indeed, topics may thus be defined as the top (macro)
propositions of the Text Representation or of the mental model assigned to the text by
speaker/writer or recipient.

How do we know this? Well, language users often provide their (own, subjective)
summaries of a text, and such a summary in many respects expresses the
macrostructure of the text. This global inference of topics by the language user is not
only based on word or sentence meanings of discourse, but also needs vast amounts
of knowledge that is NOT provided by the text, but by the knowledge representations
of the language users. A cognitive analysis of topics, then, involves spelling out those
knowledge items (or information) that were used or need to be used by participants in
order to derive (their) topics from a given text -- for instance as expressed in
headlines, titles or conclusions.

Implications and implicatures

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 Much semantic analysis of discourse casually uses the notion of 'implication', in
the same way as pragmatic analysis uses the related notion of 'implicature'. However,
implications and implicatures are strictly speaking not part of the semantic
representation of a text, as traditionally defined, but propositions inferred from (the
meaning of) actually expressed words, phrases, clauses or sentences of discourse.
Again, there is a formal definition in terms of semantic entailment (implication based
on the meaning of terms, e.g., 'dead' entails 'not alive', etc.), but in most discourse
analysis that would neither be sufficient, nor indeed necessary. Implication in
discourse is used in a much less strict way, and we may say that if two states are at
war, this usually implies that they fight and use arms and armies to do so. This is not
a logical implication, nor merely part of the meaning of 'war', but rather propositions
derived from our socially shared knowledge about wars. Thus, spelling out the
(cognitive) implications of a proposition expressed in the text, means to list (some of)
the propositions that may be derived from this propositions given a relevant domain
of knowledge. Such a list may be very long, and hence impractical, so that we usually
spell out only those implications that are relevant in the current context. One of the
elements of this context (NB: a mental model of the reader or the analyst !!!) may be
our assumptions about the intentions of the speaker/writer. In that case we say: By
saying A, the speaking probably implies that B, C and D. Or we can specify our own
model of the context, and say: For me, A implies E, F or G.

The same is true for (pragmatic) implicatures, which are inferences based not only on
meaning, but on 'meaning' of speech acts or other communicative acts in specific
contexts. Thus, not responding to a question may 'implicate' that the recipient does
not want to continue speaking about a topic.

We see that this (as well as all other) cognitive operations are always formulated in
relation to a specific context, for instance the intentions, goals or beliefs of
speakers/writers and recipients.

Presuppositions

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Presuppositions are a specific type of implications. In formal terms, a proposition is a
presupposition of p when it is implied by p as well as by non-p. Thus, the proposition
'John used to beat his wife' is a presupposition of 'John stopped beating is wife'
because it is implied by the latter proposition, as well as by the proposition 'John did
not stop beating his wife'.

As in the other examples discussed here, however, we favor a more realistic,

psychological account of presuppositions. In such an account, a presupposition of a
proposition p is any proposition that must be true (or rather: accepted by the
participants) for p to be meaningful (understandable) for the language users. In other
words, presuppositions are simply the set of meaning conditions of a sentence: what
we must know in order to understand a sentence (or sequence of sentences). Thus,
whereas the proposition that 'John is dead' generally implies that (we believe that)
John is no longer among the living, the presupposition set of such a proposition
would include such propositions as 'John died', 'John probably died because of an
illness, accident or homicide', etc.

The "linguistic" nature of presuppositions is given by the fact that presuppositions are
not just any odd piece of knowledge we may have to understand a part of discourse,
but the fact that there are expressions in the text that express or otherwise signal such
presupposed propositions. Thus, if we say that 'even the terrorists took pity of the
victims,' then the use of "even" presupposes that terrorists are usually pitiless. The
same is true for many other expressions (the use of the definite article 'the' often
presupposes the existence of something), as well as preposed that-clauses, as in 'That
the elections were rigged, was regretted by all politicians' which presupposes that the
elections were indeed rigged.

In discourse analysis, and especially in critical discourse analysis, presupposition

analysis especially focuses on those presuppositions that suggest that some
proposition is (accepted to be) true, but in fact is not true at all, or at least
controversial. Thus, if police or media report that energetic action is being undertaken

114
against the "rising crime among minorities", such an expression may falsely
presuppose (or indirectly assert) that the crime rate among minorities is indeed rising.

Local coherence
In modern linguistics the wholeness of the text, the close inter -
connection of its constituents has got the name of text coherence (from
Latin "cohaerens"—sticking together, well-knit). It is also
metaphorically conveyed by the molecular -physics term — cohesion,
attraction of particles to each other, tendency to remain united.
The text wholeness, the organic hitching of its parts is inhe rent both to
separate spans of the text and to the entire speech produc tion. Separate
spans into which the text is fractioned are joined together preserving
the unity, totality of the literary work, ensuring consecutiveness
(continuum) of the related even ts, facts, actions.
Discourse is coherent not only when it is globally coherent (has a topic), but also
when its respective sentences (propositions) are locally or sequentially coherent.
Such coherence was originally often accounted for in terms of meaning relations
between subsequent propositions. However, we now usually define coherence simply
in terms of mental models: A text is coherent if its has a mental model; or more
psychologically: a text is coherent for A is A is able to assign a mental model to it. In
other words, A is able to imagine a situation in/for which the text could be true. In
other words, when cognitively analyzing the coherence of the text, we examine the
relations between its subsequent propositions, and establish relative to what mental
model the text makes sense. This kind of coherence may also be called 'referential' or
'extensional' because it is defined in terms of the (mental models of the) events the
text is about.

There is however also a form of coherence based on meaning, propositions and their
(functional) relations, for instance when a sentences B is a Generalization,
Specifiation, Example, Consequence, Presupposition, etc of sentence A. Again, such
functional relations are not (only) based on conceptual knowledge (as in the fact that
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a chair is a piece of furniture), but also on broader world knowledge (what chairs
look like, are used for etc.). Again, such relationships between propositions may be
critically studied, e.g., when someone says that all Moroccans are fanatic as a
generalization of the specific sentence that Mohamed is a fanatic. Thus, both for the
study of referential coherence as for the study of this kind of 'intensional' coherence,
we need to spell out the knowledge or beliefs needed for participants to be able to
establish this coherence.

Lexical meanings; connotations

In the same way as propositions may have implications and presuppositions, also
word meanings may have specific 'implications', often called 'connotations'. These
connotations are not always -- or seldom -- in the dictionary, but often assigned on
the basis of the cultural knowledge of the participants. Thus, we may describe the
same group from different political perspectives and thus wind up being its ally, or its
enemy, e.g. when we describe them as 'terrorists' or freedomfighters'. In this case, the
first word has rather negative connotations, whereas the second is rather negative. In
both cases, we activate our social knowledge about these groups, and then depen on
point of view (and perspective).

We have only given a short list of examples for cognitive analysis. However, we
see that a cognitive analysis generally applies to (semantic) structures such as the
following:

- Defining the situation; defining as overall meanings (topics)

Examine relevant implied meanings of words or sentences

Most of these semantic structures, as well as many others, can only be accounted
for in terms of personal or socially shared knowledge, and require listing
relevant knowledge or other beliefs. In The Cambridge Encyclopedia of
Language, Crystal observes that, in practice, most stylistic analysis has

116
attempted to deal with the complex and ‘valued’ language within literature, i.e.
‘literary stylistics’. He goes on to say that in such examination the scope is
sometimes narrowed to concentrate on the more striking features of literary
language, for instance, its ‘deviant’ and abnormal features, rather than the
broader structures that are found in whole texts or discourses. For example, the
compact language of poetry is more likely to reveal the secrets of its construction
to the stylistician than is the language of plays and novels. (Crystal. 1987,
71).Poetry

As well as conventional styles of language there are the unconventional – the

most obvious of which is poetry. In Practical Stylistics, HG Widdowson examines the
traditional form of the epitaph, as found on headstones in a cemetery. For example:

His memory is dear today

As in the hour he passed away.
(Ernest C. Draper ‘Ern’. Died 4.1.38)
(Widdowson. 1992, 6)

Widdowson makes the point that such sentiments are usually not very
interesting and suggests that they may even be dismissed as ‘crude verbal carvings’
and crude verbal disturbance (Widdowson, 3). Nevertheless, Widdowson recognises
that they are a very real attempt to convey feelings of human loss and preserve
affectionate recollections of a beloved friend or family member. However, what may
be seen as poetic in this language is not so much in the formulaic phraseology but in
where it appears. The verse may be given undue reverence precisely because of the
sombre situation in which it is placed. Widdowson suggests that, unlike words set in
stone in a graveyard, poetry is unorthodox language that vibrates with inter-textual
implications. (Widdowson. 1992, 4)

Two problems with a stylistic analysis of poetry are noted by PM Wetherill in

Literary Text: An Examination of Critical Methods. The first is that there may be an
over-preoccupation with one particular feature that may well minimise the

117
significance of others that are equally important. (Wetherill. 1974, 133) The second is
that any attempt to see a text as simply a collection of stylistic elements will tend to
ignore other ways whereby meaning is produced. (Wetherill. 1974, 133) Widdowson
points out that in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem "The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner" (1798), the mystery of the Mariner’s abrupt appearance is sustained by an
idiosyncratic use of tense. (Widdowson. 1992, 40) For instance, the Mariner ‘holds’
the wedding-guest with his ‘skinny hand’ in the present tense, but releases it in the
past tense ('...his hands dropt he.'); only to hold him again, this time with his
‘glittering eye’, in the present. (Widdowson. 1992, 41)

The point of poetry

Widdowson notices that when the content of poetry is summarised, it often refers to
very general and unimpressive observations, such as ‘nature is beautiful; love is
great; life is lonely; time passes’, and so on. (Widdowson. 1992, 9) But to say:

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,

So do our minutes hasten to their end ...
William Shakespeare, ‘60’.

Or, indeed:

Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,

Nor hours, days months, which are the rags of time ...
John Donne, ‘The Sun Rising’, Poems (1633)

This language gives the reader a new perspective on familiar themes and allows us to
look at them without the personal or social conditioning that we unconsciously
associate with them. (Widdowson. 1992, 9) So, although the reader may still use the
same exhausted words and vague terms like ‘love’, ‘heart’ and ‘soul’ to refer to
human experience, to place these words in a new and refreshing context allows the
poet the ability to represent humanity and communicate honestly. This, in part, is
stylistics, and this, according to Widdowson, is the point of poetry (Widdowson.
1992, 76).
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 Text informativity

It is common knowledge that any text is assigned to convey certain information

There are different types of information. l.R.Galperin differentiates the following types
of information: content- factual, content-conceptual and content-subtextual. Factual
information contains data about facts, events, actions, objects, ideas, etc. Factual
information is explicit and therefore easily observed in the text. Subtextual information
is implicit, and it is mostly characteristic of fictional texts. This information is
embodied in some text fragments on the basis of the stylistic resources used in the text.
It appears in the text due to various expressive means and stylistic devices, contextual
meanings and additional senses, associative and intertextual links. So, subtext is a kind
of additional hidden information that can be drawn irom the text thanks to the ability of
language units to engender associative and connotative meanings. 1 lence, the role of
stylistic means in conveying subtextual information is dilTieuh to overestimate. In this
connection it is worth mentioning aphoristic statements charged with various
implications.

Oh Time, the lieautifier of the dead,

Adorner of die ruin ('omforter And only llealer when die heart hath hied
Time! The ('orreetor where our judgments err ■IK
The test of truth, love -sole Philosopher For all beside are sophists...
Time, the Avenger! Into thee I lift
My hands, and eyes, and heart, and crave of thee a gift.
(Byron G., Childe Harold).
It is a convergence of stylistic devices (personification, metaphor, periphrasis,
parallelism, gradation) that conveys subtextual information here. An abstract notion of
“time” described with the help of the predicates - Adorner, Beaut ifier, Comforter,
Healer, Corrector, Avenger which are personified since human abilities (to console, to
cure, to take revenge...) are ascribed to them. This statement is characterized by a high
degree of emotional impact achieved by a peculiar stylistic arrangement of the

119
utterance and, subsequently, by subtextual information.
Conceptual information, being an essence of literary communication, reflects the
author’s conceptual world picture, his understanding of people’s social, economic,
political and cultural life. The decoding of conceptual information depends on factual
and subtextual types of information. The final aim of fictional text analysis is to reveal
conceptual information, to penetrate through the surface structure of the text into its
deep-level meaning. Conceptual information is discrete ¡md can be presented as a
hierarchic system of conceptually different units. According to the degree of
conceptual significance the following types of conceptual information can be singled
out: microconcept, macroconcept, and superconcept. Microconcept is a conceptual
meaning of a separate language unit. Macroconcept is formed within a text fragment.
Superconcept is the highest conceptual unit which, covering the whole text, appears to
be its semantic focus. In the process of text production conceptual information is
spread in the direction: from su- pcrconcept to microconcepts, from the author’s
intention to its realization in the text. In the process of text perception conceptual
information has a reverse motion: from microconcepts to a superconcept
In discussing the problem of text categories it should be noted that many categoric« have
got a complete account in the works by l.R. Galperin and Z.Y. Turiieva
I'here are two approaches to the problem of intertextuality: from the position of
theory of literature and that of linguistics. In literature intertextuality is understood in a
broad sense, and any text is regarded r, an intertext. It is accounted for by the fact that
all texts are related to our knowledge of the world, reflect people’s cultural and
historical experience, and therefore any text contains elements of other texts in a inore
or less recognizable form. This conception found strong .upport among Russian and
foreign scholars (Ю.М. Лотман, И.П. i мирнов, Б.М. Гаспаров, R. Barth, M.
Riffatere).
From the linguistic perspective intertextuality is limited to those texts which have
explicit reference to other texts. In such cases the nuthor deliberately conceptualizes
the relationships between two texts with the help of special formal means (Арнольд,

120
2002; Чернявская, ’009; Пьеге - Гро, 2008). In other w'ords, there must be special
inter- textual signals, indicators and markers in the text. The special literature on this
subject marks various kinds of intertextual relationships: title, epigraph, “sounding
names”, antonomasia, parody, repetition of text forms (structure, rhythm), lexical units,
allusions and etc.
According to prof.D.U.Ashurova’s observations one of the most frequent intertex-
lual inclusions is allusion. Allusion in the fictional text accomplishes the function of an
“intertext”, decoding of which requires establishing .ictual connections with the
original text, it is achieved by comparing and contrasting two texts and revealing their
similar features. In this regard an allusive title is of most interest because,
conceptualizing the w hole text, it promotes a net of associations and intertextual
connec- lions with other texts. The title of the story by O’Henry “The Gift of the Magi”
can serve as an illustration. The semantic prototype of this story is a biblical legend
about the Magi who came to Bethlehem to worship newly born Jesus Christ. The story
tells us about a poor young couple who on the eve of Christmas presented each other
with the gilts which, though appeared useless, became a symbol of their love, sacrifice
and wisdom. The title of story serves as a hint to a parallel between the young couple
and Magi who came from the East brought out their gifts and presented them to the
child. True love is equalled here to the wisdom of the Magi as has explicitly been
shown in the text:
“The magi as you know - were wise men - wonderfully wise men - who brought gifts
to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being
wise, their presents were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of
exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful
chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other
the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it
be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive
gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi”
(O’Henry, The Gift of Magi. p.36).

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 Intertextuality is a very important though optional, category of belles-letters and
publicistic texts. There are lexis which are devoid of any references, both explicit
and implicit, to other texts. In other words, I here is no ground to speak about
intertcxluality if there are no discernible link 1, between (lie Iwo lexis: original and
precedent.
Text Modality

In compositions of emotive prose textual modality is related on the basis of

certain regularities. Textual modality more frequently finds its place in relative
spans of the text, which don’t carry main factual information, but not in
predicative spans which are mostly imbued with the facts. Modality acquiers a
more significant role in creating conceptual information.

Thus in the story “Wild Flowers’ by E.Caldwell descriptive spans of the text
carrying no factual information are subjected to reaccentation. The following
example shows how description acquires predicative status and becomes a key-
note in conveying conceptual information. “ While she trudged along the sandy
road, she could smell the fragrance of the last bummer flowers all around her.
The weeds and scrub hid most of them from sight, but every chance she got she
stopped a moment and looked along the side of the ditches for blossoms”.

Bringing this passage into correlation with the title and the content of the whole
story we can disclose the author’s attitude to his personages and the reality
described –in other words determine the subjective evaluating textual modality;
for the author Vern and Nelly are frail but at the same time staunch wild flowers
staunch in their love confronting the cruel world, the rein of weeds and thorns.

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PRACTICAL PART

Seminar 1
CONTENT, SUBJECT AND METHODS OF STYLISTICS

Lead-in
Time: 15 min
Materials: board and markers

►Procedure:
☺ (1 min) Teacher will say that during this lesson students will explore what
stylistics is (what’s it’s aims and objects), and will share their opinions, ideas about
it.Teacher says that the purpose of this activity is to think together what stylistics
is,what style can be compared to. T will write the following unfinished sentence on
the board:
Stylistics, sometimes called linguostylistics, is a branch linguistics, which deals with
………….
"Style is depth”
☺(10 min) Give students some thinking time and then invite volunteers to share
their ideas with the whole group. Ask them to explain their ideas. Write several
examples on the board.
Possible ideas
Stylistics, sometimes called linguostylistics, is a branch linguistics, which deals
with the result of the act of communication, investigating a system of interrelated
language means which serves a definite aim in communication.
Stylistics is the study and interpretation of texts in regards to their linguistic and
tonal style.
Stylistics as a conceptual discipline may attempt to establish principles capable
of explaining particular choices made by individuals and social groups in their use of
language
Sstylistics looks at what is 'going on' within the language; what the linguistic
associations are that the style of language reveals.
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Invite comments. People have different views and beliefs about the stylistics and
text interpretation and this explains the existence of so many different and interesting
theories of stylistics.

Activity 1. Ground rules

Objective: to help participants build the community in the group and develop
ground rules
time: 5 min
Materials: six blank slips of paper per group, markers
►Procedure:
☺ Ask studentsto think individually about their three strengths.
☺ ☺ ☺ Divide them into groups and ask them to discuss how their strengths can
contribute to their learning in the whole group (e.g. I am a good listener. I try to be
patient and listen to everyone without interrupting them. This can motivate people to
speak.)
☺ Collect random answers from the groups. Establish that they can complement each
other by sharing and learning from each other.
☺ Say that there are some other ways of supporting successful learning in a group.
Elicit or say that one of these ways is by setting

GROUND RULES.

☺ ☺ ☺ Divide students into groups of 4 and distribute six slips of paper per group.
Ask them to think and agree on six ground rules that would be suggested to the whole
group.
Ask them to write one ground rule on each slip of paper.
☺Ask groups to put their slips with ground rules in the centre of the room and read
them out, then compare and choose those rules which are similar. These should be
included in the final list. Students may also want to include some interesting rules

Activity 2. The object and the aims of stylistics

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Objective: to explore participants’ perceptions of the object and the aims of stylistics,
the termsstyle and stylistics,the linguistic nature of expressive means and stylistic
devices,cognitive stylistics.

Time: 15 min
Materials: M&M chocolate candies of 4 different colours to group participants
(options: cards with 3 months of each season, 3 coloursof the traffic lights, post-it-
notes with the names of 3 countries/flowers).

►Procedure:
☺ Ask students to take an M&M chocolate candy of any colour (you may use any
other things mentioned above in order to put them into three groups).

☺ ☺ ☺ Ask students with M&M candies of the same colour to form a group.
Tell participants that each of their groups should talk on the given topic. Give groups
the following topics:

The task for the “Yellow” group is to discuss about the object and the aims of
stylistics
The task for the “Green” group is to discuss about the terms style and stylistics

The task for the “Red” group is to discuss aboutthe linguistic nature of
expressive means and stylistic devices

The task for the “Pink” group is to discuss about the aims and objects of
Cognitive stylistics

those of other students with the

whole group.
☺(8 min) Invite a spokesperson from each group to comment on their discussion.
Activity 3. The classification of stylistic devices

Objective: to explore participants’ perceptions of The classification of stylistic

devices

Time: 10 min
Materials: cards with the names of 4 seasons to group students to 4 groups.
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 ►Procedure:
☺Teacher explains with the help of slide materials about 4 groups of SD.
I. SD based on the binary opposition of lexical meanings regardless of the
syntactical organization of the utterance - lexical stylistic devices.
II. SD based on the binary opposition of syntactical meanings regardless of their
semantics - syntactical stylistic devices.
III. SD based on the binary opposition of lexical meanings accompanied by
fixed syntactical organization of employed lexical units - lexico-syntactical stylistic
devices.
IV. SD based on the opposition of meanings of phonological and/or graphical
elements of the language - graphical and phonetical stylistic means.
When the opposition is clearly perceived and both indicated meanings are
simultaneously realized within the same short context we speak of fresh, original,
genuine SD.
When one of the meanings is suppressed by the other we speak of trite, or
hackneyed SD.
When the second, contextual, meaning is completely blended with the first,
initial one, we speak of the disappearance of SD and its replacement by polysemy or
phraseology
☺ Ask students to take cards with the names of 4 seasons
☺ ☺ ☺ Ask students with cards with the same names of seasons to form a
group. Tell sudents that each of their groups should talk on the given topic. Give
groups the following topics:
The task for the “winter” group is to discuss about lexical stylistic devices.

The task for the “Summer” group is to discuss about syntactical stylistic
devices.
The task for the “ spring” group is to discuss about the lexico-syntactical
stylistic devices.
The task for the “autumn” group is to discuss about the graphical and
phonetical stylistic means
Ask students to share their own ideas, opinions those of other students with
the whole group.
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 ☺(8 min) Invite a spokesperson from each group to comment on their
discussion.
Possible answers Antonomasia ,metaphor,metonymy,

Activity 4. Expressiveness and emotiveness

Objective: to familiarize students with differences of expressiveness and

emotiveness
Time: 20 min
Materials: handouts 1a and 1b to each pair.)
►Procedure
☺ ☺ (7 min) Put participants into pairs. To introduce some examples of
expressiveness and emotiveness distribute handouts 1a, 1b,1c,1d to each pair and
ask them to explain how or in what way expressiveness is achieved in the
sentences.
(1) Mr. Smith was an extremely unpleasant person.
(2) Never will he go to that place again.
(3) In rushed the soldiers!
(4) It took us a very, very long time to get there.
(5) Isn't she cute!
(6) Fool that he was!
(7)" This goddam window won't open!
(8) We buddy-buddied together.

Possible answers

In sentence (1) expressiveness is achieved by lexical means—the word

'extremely'. In (2) and (3) by syntactical means—different types of inversion. In (4)
the emphasis is materialized by the repetition of the word 'very’which is in itself a
word used to intensify the utterance.
In sentence (5) and (6) there are syntactical means which evoke this effect. In (7)
and (8) there are lexical means—'goddam', 'buddy-buddied' (=were on very friendly
relations).
Activity 5 . The notion of expressiveness

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 Objective: to enable participants to find sentences expressively and
emotionally coloured in the extracts from literary works
Time: 10 min
Materials: handouts 1a-f – one to each student

►Procedure:
☺ (5 min) Ask students individually to find sentences expressively and
emotionally coloured in the extracts from literary works. Distribute handouts 1a,
1b,1c,1d to each student
☺(7 min) Invite 4-5 students to share their answers. Comment where necessary

Activity 6. Cognitive stylistics

Objective: to help participants to get better understanding linguistic nature of

cognitive stylistics
Time: 15-20 min
Materials: One sheet of A4 paper for each participant, markers
►Procedure:
☺ (5 min) Distribute one piece of A4 paper to each participant. Ask them to write
on it (1) how he or she understands cognitive stylistics
☺ (10 min) Ask participants to stand in a circle. Invite participants to discuss
together the tasks and aims of cognitive stylistics.
Summary:
Establish that the purpose of teaching stylistics is to help students for better
understanding and interpreting literature, to give knowledge about
stylistic devices and expressive means , functional styles of the English
language, functions of stylistic devices and expressive means, to teach linguistic
analysis of texts.
Tasks:
1) To choose one or two literary works of American and English writers for
reading
2)to find 10 examples of emotionally colored sentences

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3) to analyze these sentences.
Tasks for self study : to collect Internet materials on the topic, to prepare referat
work on the topic “The Development of the English literary language”.
“Cognitive stylistics”, “Stylistics and Linguoculturology”.
Seminar 2

Stylistic Differentiation of the English Vocabulary

1. Literary Stratum of Words

Objective: to give students an opportunity to explore literary stratum of words as
one of the ways of developing speaking and vocabularyas well as their
functions
Lead-in
Time: 5 min
►Procedure:
h ☺ (5 min) Ask participants the following questions and elicit a few random
answers after each question:
What do you think what kind of words do we use in speech?
What kind of words are literary words?
~ Have you ever used literary words (e.g. terms, neologisms,foreign
words,barbarisms, archaic words, terms etc.) in your speech or conversation?
~ How did you use them? In what kind of situation? For what purpose?
(Optional question: How else do you think can literary words be used in
speech?)
Possible answers:
Literary words are used/can be used: mostly inliterary works or fiction; foreign
words, barbarisms, terms are used in colloquial speech; archaic words are to
be found in historical novels of writers and in poetry. Neologisms are
mostly to be found in scientific articles.
We can also use them in our writings essays and stories.
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Activity 1.Terms
Objective: to enable students to recall and reflect on terms

Time: 20 min
Materials: flipchart paper, post-it notes, markers of different colours
►Procedure: ☺ Ask students to take a post-it-notes with different terms
(microlinguistics, derivation, suffix) in order to put them into three groups.
☺ ☺ ☺ Ask students with post-it-notes of the same term to form a group.
Tell students that each of their groups should work on the given sentences. They
should state the nature of terms in the following passages and comment on them.
Distribute handout 1a, 1b, 1c to each group .

Handout 1a
1. “…don’t you go to him for anything more serious than a appendectomy of the left
ear or a strabismus of the cardiograph”. No one save Kennecott knew exactly what
this meant, but they laughed…(S. Lewis)
2. “Good”, Abbey said suddenly. He took up a specimen – it was an aneurism of the
ascending aorta - and began in a friendly manner to question Andrew… “Do you
know anything of the history of aneurism?”
3. “What a fool Rawdon Crawley has been”, Clump replied, “to go and marry a
governess! There was something about the girl too.”

Handout 1b
1. In discussing the order of words it is advisable to treat first of simple
sentences and headclauses of compound sentences, before we take the subordinate
clause.
2.The most important questions as to word-order is the relative position of the
subject and the verbal part of the predicate. The position of the rest of the sentence
often depends upon this.
3.Phonological accuracy is critical for accurate spelling. If a pupil develops bad
patterns of pronunciation then it is inevitable that spelling will suffer because there is
no correct correspondence between sound and symbol. Pronunciation and
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intonation may be developed through a range of classroom activities.

Handout 1c
1. Pupils use dictionaries to make multiple-choice questions based on definitions.
They can either confine their range of vocabulary to the themes they are studying or,
for pure dictionary practice, they can find any word and create 2 or 3 incorrect
definitions.
2. Rhymes, poems and songs provide an excellent means of practising pronunciation
and intonation as they are largely dependent on rhyming words and intonation to
carry the message. For pupils who are not yet reading, they can be used as above
with teacher providing some input and pupils picking up where he/she stops.
3. Circle Time has already been used with great success to address the problems
encountered by those children who fail to develop the normal and appropriate social
and learning skills as a result of an inability to communicate successfully. This
approach, therefore, has much to offer in the general social and academic
development of language support pupils.

(10-15 min) Invite students to sit in a circle and in turns to share what they have
discussed. Invite any comments if necessary.
Try to classify terms (put similar ones together), if possible. Comment on
any patterns that emerge from their wants.
Activity 2. Foreign words and barbarisms

Objective: to enable students to differentiate foreign words and barbarisms

Time: 20 min
Materials: flipchart paper, post-it notes, markers of different colours

►Procedure: ☺ Ask students to take a post-it-notes with 2 different foreign words

(bon mot, tresbien) to put them into two groups.
☺ ☺ ☺ Ask students with post-it-notes of the same foreign word to form a group.
Tell students that each of their groups should work on the same text. They should

131
1)pick out barbarisms and foreign words, 2)state their origin and stylistic purposes
3)comment on them. Distribute handout 2 to each group.

Group “Bon mot” – state the origin and stylistic purposes of foreign words.
Group “Tresbien” –state the origin and stylistic purposes of barbarisms.
Handout 2
1. She caught herself criticizing his belief that, since his joke about trying
to keep her out of the poorhouse had once been accepted as admirable humor, it
should continue to be his daily bon mot. ( S. Lewis)
Then, of course, there ought to be one or two outsiders- just to give the thing a
bona fide appearance. ( A. Christie)
2. “Tyree, you got half of the profits!” Dr. Bruce shouted. “You’re my de
factor partner”
“What that de facto mean, Doc? ...”
“Papa, it means you are partner in fact and in law”, Fishbelly told him.
(R.Wright)
3. And now the roof had fallen in on him. The first shock was over, the dust
had settled and he could now see that his whole life was kaput. (J. Braine)
4. “I never sent any telegram. What did id say?”
“I believe it is still on the table la-bas”.
Elise retired, pounced upon it, and brought it to her mistress in triumph.
“Viola, Madame!” (A. Christie)
5. When Danny came home from army he learned that he was a heir and
owner of the property. The Viejo, that is the grandfather, had died leaving Danny
the two small houses on the Tortilla Flat. (J. Steinbeck)
6. Yates remained serious. “We have time, Herr Lippmann, to try your
schnapps. Are there any German troops in Neustadt”
No, Herr Affizier ,that’s just what I’ve to tell you, This morning, four gentlemen
in all, we went out of Neustadt to meet the HerrenAmericaner”. (St.Heym )
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Activity 3.Archaisms and neologisms
Objective: to practise the usage of archaisms
Time: 15 min
Materials: handout
☺ ☺ Put students in pairs and give them handout 3
archaismsfrom the first column with their modern equivalents in the second
column.
cipants to look at the archaisms and think if they know some other
archaisms.

Check the answers with the whole group.

Answer Key

Albeit although
Anon at once
Bade bad
Billow wave
Clad closed
didst did
diest die
ehe also
foe enemy
haply perhaps
Hearhen listen
hie haste
Hither here
morn morning
Oft often
notheless nevertheless
Quoth said
shalt shall
Troth truth
spouse wife
Vend sell
wert were
Whilom formerly
whit thing
Vernal spring
yond there

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 HANDOUT 3

Albeit Enemy
Anon here
Bade die
Billow wave
Clad closed
didst did
diest bad
ehe also
foe although
haply perhaps
Hearhen listen
hie haste
Hither at once
morn shall
Oft said
notheless spring
Quoth often
shalt morning
Troth were
spouse sell
Vend wife
wert truth
Whilom formerly
whit thing
Vernal nevertheless
yond there

Activity 4.Archaisms

Objective: to practise the usage of archaisms

Time: 20 min
Materials: handout 4,

►Procedure:
☺Ask students to pick out the archaic words from the given text and to
find their Modern English equivalents. Distribute handout 4 students and ask
them to do the task individually.

134
 ☺☺Ask students to share their answers in pairs.
☺Check the answers and invite students to ask any other questions if they
need to clarify something.

Handout 4

Pick out the archaic words and forms of words and give their Modern English
equivalents:

1. If manners maketh man, then manner and grooming maketh poodle. (St.)
2. He kept looking at the fantastic green of the jungle and then at the
orange-brown earth, febrile and pulsing as though the rain was cutting wounds
into it. Ridges flinched before the power of it.
The Lord giveth and He taketh away, Ridges thought solemnly. (N. M.)
3. Nay nothing- only methinks it might satisfy you that I am trustworthy.
(W.Scott)
4. “Why, uncle, thinkest thou I am an infidel, and would harm those of
mine own house?”
“It’s for no harm that I speak, Mike”, answered his uncle. True, thou art as well
gilded as snake; but for all that, thou creepest not into my Eden. I will look after mine
Eve, Mike, and content thee. But how brave thou be’st, lad!
5. “Maiden”, he said, “thou hast the face of one who should love her
mistress.
She hath much need of faithful service.”
“Get thee gone instantly, or I will call for assistance, my father must here this
time be returned”.
6. Didst thou not hear the noise?
7. “Thou art the Man! Cried Jabes, after a solemn pause. (E. Bronte)
8. Sometimes, as I says to some of these here young fellers that comes in
here, we don’t know as much as we thinks we does.
9. Behold her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass!
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 10.I saw thee weep- the big bright tear
Came o’er that eye of blue;
And then me thought it did appear
A violet dropping dew… (Byron).
Summary:
Establish that the purpose of teaching literary words is to help students for
better understanding the native speakers’ speech, interpreting literature, to
enlarge their vocabulary, to be able to differentiate kinds of literary words, to
enjoy reading literature.
Tasks:
1) to search for 10 sentences where used literary words from literary works of
English and American writers
2) to analyze these sentences.

Tasks for self study : to collect Internet materials on the topic, to prepare referat
work on the topic “The Development of the English literary language”.
“Stylistic classification of the English Vocabulary”, “Neutral, common literary
and common colloquial vocabulary’’,“Special literary vocabulary”,“Special
colloquial vocabulary”.

Seminar 3
SPECIAL COLLOQUIAL VOCABULARY

Slang, jargonizms, vulgar words or vulgarisms, professionalisms, dialectical

words, colloqual coinages

Objective to teach to use special colloquial vocabulary rightly.,to practise to

differentiate special colloquial vocabulary

Warm up
Time 6min
Materials: board, chalk
Brainstorming A teacher-guided brainstorming session is useful for generating ideas
on a given topic.

What is slang?
136
T writes the question on the board and asks Ss to give him/her as manyideas as
possible related to the question . Anawers may be slang, fresh names, clishe,
phrase, colloquial word,
At the end of the discussion they achieve the right definition

Activity 1 Kinds of Slang

Objective: to explore participants’ perceptions of kinds of slang
Time: 15 min
Materials: sheets of paper

►Procedure:
☺ Invite participants to think individually about slang that they have read in
literature , newspapers or heard in conversation with other people .

☺ ☺ ☺ Put participants in groups of 3 and invite them to share their experience.

Distribute white sheets of paper and ask participants to list 5 slangs

(Possible answers.: money-beans, lolly, brass, dibs, daughs;
For head –attic, brain-pen, hat, nut, upper storey;
For drunk-boozy, cock-eyed, high. etc.) Invite groups to share their list.
Write their examples on the board.
☺ ☺ ☺ Ask studentss, in their small groups, to discuss these examples of
slangs and differentiate these slangs into different kinds
☺ ☺ ☺ Ask two members of each group to visit other groups, moving clockwise, to
have a look at their suggestions. Ask the student who stayed in the place to
137
introduce the group’s list and invite questions and comments. Tell students to try to
reach a consensus by asking each other to justify their choices.
☺ ☺ ☺ Ask students to return to their group and decide whether they would like to
add any changes to their list.
☺Say that participants will help you to summarise this activity. Ask them to make
cluster .
Possible answers:
Kinds of slang

 General slang
 Teenager slang
 University slang
 Public school slang
 Prison slang
 War slang
 Lawyer’s slang, etc.

Activity 2
Objective: to practice the usage of slangs
Time: 15 min
Materials: handout 3

►Procedure:
☺ ☺ Put students in pairs and give them handout 3 to pick out slang
words from the text and use them in their own conversation:

1. The young man who had been turning his head from side to side, become
transfixed. “I say” he said, “some picture”. (Galsworthy)
2. By George He was swell… (Galsworthy)
3. He…thought her father had some “ripping” pictures considering the name
Fleur simply topping... (Galsworthy)
4. “His name was Swithin”
“What a corking name!”
5. “How is the boy?”
“A-1, sir” (Galsworthy)

138
 6. “What is a Sawbones?” inquired Mr. Pickwick, not quite certain whether it
was a live or something to eat.
“What! Don’t you what a Sawbones is, sir” inquired Mr. Walter. “I thought
everybody know’d as a Sawbones was a Surgeon.” (Dickens)
7. “No real sportsman cares for money”, we would say, borrowing a “pony” if
it was no use trying for a “monkey”. (Galsworthy)
(Pony-25 pound banknote, monkey-500 pound banknote)
☺☺Ask students to perform their conversations in pairs.
☺ Listen to the students conversations and give feedback to their works.
Activity 3. Classification of jargons
Objective: to practice to classify jargons
Time: 20 min
Materials: none

►Procedure: to use graphic organizer “Cluster” and classify jargon words to

their sphere of usage;differentiate professional and social jargonisms; suggest a
terminological equivalent where possible:
a)Military jargons:
jaw- breakers(sea-biscuits),
deep sea turkey (cold –fish),
put in a bag(killed),
picture –show (battle –action),
sewing –machine(machine-gun);

b) student jargons –abbreviations:

exam - (examination),
math - (mathematics),
trig - ( trigonometry),
ec - (economics),
prof - ( professor),
presy - (president),
to cut a lecture - (to miss a lecture),
oldier - (an old song ),
tenner - (ten pounds),
clipper - (a woman conductor who punches a hole in a bus or train tickets),
Scoty - (a Scotsman),
Welshie - (a Welshman),
babble car - (a small car),
legman - ( a reporter),
139
 to bag - ( to take smb.’s property without permission but not intending to steal),
beak - (Schollmaster),
to soft-soap - (to flatter).

Activity 4.Types of meanings

Objective: to practice to differentiate types of meanings

Time: 15 min
Materials: handout 4
►Procedure:
☺ ☺ ☺ Ask students in their small groups discuss and speak about the difference
between the contextual and the dictionary meanings of italicized words:

1. Mr. James Duffy lived in Chapelizod because he wished to live as far as

possible from the city of which he was the citizen and because he found all the other
suburbs of Dublin mean, modern and pretentious. (J. J.)
2. He does all our insurance examining and they say he's some doctor. (S. L.)
3. He seemed prosperous, extremely married and unromantic. (S. L.)
4. "What do you think?" The question pops their heads up. (K. K.)
5.We tooled the car into the street and eased it into the ruck of folks. (R.W.)
6. He inched the car forward. (A. H.)
7. "Of course it was considered a great chance for me, as he is so rich. And -
and - we drifted into a sort of understanding - I suppose I should call it an
engagement -"
"You may have drifted into it; but you will bounce out of it, my pettikins, if I
am to have anything to do with it." (B. Sh.)
8. He sat with the strike committee for many hours in a smoky room and
agonized over ways and means. (M. G.)
9. Betty loosed fresh tears. (Jn. B.)
10. When the food came, they wolfed it down rapidly. (A. M.)

140
 Activity 4.Vulgar words

Objective: to practice to differentiate vulgar words and their equivalents in their

native language

Time: 10 min
Materials: handout 4
►Procedure:
☺ ☺ ☺ Put participants in groups of 3, distribute handout 4 and ask pick out
vulgar words from the text and find their equivalents in their mother tongue.
☺Check the answers and invite students to ask any other questions if they need
to clarify something.

1. I’ll hand him that, the old devil. (M. Spillages)

2. “That bastard crosses there every night”, the man said. (E.
Hemingway)
3. Suddenly Percy snatched the letter… “Give it to me, you rotten
devil”, Peter shouted. “I’ll kick your big fat belly. I swear I will” (J. Braine)
4. Look at the son of a bitch down there: pretending he’s one of the
boys today. (J. Jones)
5. How are you, Cartwright? This is the very devil of a business, you
know! The very devil of a business. (A. Christie)
6. “Poor son of a bitch” he said. “I feel for him, and I’m sorry I was
bastardly.” (J. Jones)
7. I’m no damned fool! I couldn’t go on believing forever that gang
was going to change the world. (O’Henry)
8. “Listen, you son of a bitch”, he said feeling an icy calm that was a
flaming rapture of abandon. (J. Jones)
9. Man, you just a big black bugger.
10. “You’ll probably see me at a loss for one to-night.”
“I bet. But you’ll stick to me, won’t you?”
“Like a bloody leech, man.” (K. Amis)

Summary:
Establish that the purpose of teaching special colloquial vocabulary is to help
students for better understanding the native speakers’ speech, interpreting
literature, to enlarge their vocabulary, to be able to differentiate kinds of
special colloquial vocabulary, to make their speech more lively.

Tasks:
141
 1) to search for 10 sentences where used special colloquial vocabulary.
from literary works of English and American writers
2) to analyze these sentences.

Tasks for self study : to collect Internet materials on the topic, to prepare referat
work on the topics:Intentional mixing of the stylistic aspect of words. Interaction of
different types of lexical meaning. Interaction of Primary Dictionary and
Contextually Imposed Meaning.

Seminar 4

Lexical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices

Interaction of different types lexical meaning
Interaction of dictionary and contextual logical meanings
Metaphor
Metonymy
Irony

Objective: To explain interaction of dictionary and contextual logical meanings, to

practice SD of Metaphor, Metonymy, Irony; to differentiate Genine and trite
metaphors, metonymies, irony, to define their functions in the sentences.

Lead- in:
Time: 15 min
Materials: board and markers, projector ,computer

►Procedure:
☺ (1 min) Teacher shows the following metaphors on the screen;asks students
opinion on them

“Life is battle“ “Life is a journey” “Life is scene” “Life is an onion”

Activity 1. Definitions of metaphor and metonymy

Objective: to explore what is metaphor and metonymy

Time: 15 min
Materials: none

►Procedure: ☺ Ask participants to take post-it-notes with the names of 2 flowers

in order to put them into two groups.
142
 ☺ ☺ ☺ Ask participants with post-it-notes with the same names of flowers to
form a group.
STEP 1.Tell students that each of their groups should talk on the given topic.
Teacher asks to give their definition to the metaphor and metonymy and explain
it with examples.
STEP2.Ask representative of each group to share their own definitions and
examples or those of other students with the whole group.
Possible answers
A metaphor is like a simile which is not always likely or obvious. However, the
explicit use of the word “like” or “as” which you see in a simile, is not used in a
metaphor which is rather comparison of two unlike things using the verb “to be” .
Hence , a metaphor sounds more forceful and suggestive, but is still very
common in speech. Common metaphors include “the neck of the woods” or
“the foot of the mountain”. This can be seen to be similar to similes – they suggests
a comparison but do not make it explicitly. We often use metaphors without
realizing it.
The word metaphor derives from the 16 th century Old French métaphore in
turn from the Latin metaphorά“carrying over” , which is the Romanization
of the Greek ΜΣŢąΥΟΡά (metaphorά) , “transfer” , [2] from ΜΣŢąΥĚΡW
(metaphero) , “to carry over”, “to transfer” , [3] itself a
compound of ΜΣŢą (meta) , “between” [4] + ΥĚΡW (pherō)“to bear” , “to
carry” .
Metaphors are comparisons that are not alike in most ways are similar in one
important way. A metaphor is more forceful (active) than an analogy , because
metaphor asserts two things are the same , whereas analogy implies a difference,
other rhetorical comparative figures of speech, such as metonymy, parable , simile
and synecdoche, are species of metaphor distinguished by how the comparison is
communicated. Metaphor is the concept of understanding one thing in terms of
another.

143
For a metaphor is a figure of speech that constructs an analogy between two things
or ideas , the analogy is conveyed by
example: “Her eyes were glistening jewels”.
Metaphor also denotes rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via
association , comparison or resemblance (e.g., antithesis , hyperbole , metonymy and
simile , which are all types of metaphor).
Metonymy is based on a different type of relation between the dictionary and
contextual meanings, a relation based not on identification, but on some kind of
association connecting the two concepts which these meanings represent.
Thus, the word crown may stand for 'king or queen', cup or glass for 'the drink it
contains',Here also the interrelation between the dictionary and contextual meanings
should stand out clearly and conspicuously. Only then can we state that a stylistic
device is used. Otherwise we must turn our mind to lexicological problems, i.e. to the
ways and means by which new words and meanings are coined. The examples of
metonymy given above are traditional. In fact they are derivative logical meanings
and therefore fixed in dictionaries. However, when such meanings are included in
dictionaries, there is usually a label fig ('figurative use').
Activity 3.To search for metaphors
Objective: to practice to find metaphors in the extract from literary text
Time: 15 min
Materials: handouts 1

►Procedure: ☺ A teacher gives instructions : To search for metaphors from the

literary text and to classify them into trite and original. This is an individual task.
STEP 1. A teacher distributes handouts to each student and asks to work
individually on the text.
STEP 2. Students will share with their findings. Teacher will lead the dispute
and tell the right version.

144
Possible answers
Original metaphors
1. He broke into a fit of laughter and coughing added … manufacturing that
champagne for those fellows. (J.J)
2. A cry sprang to his lips, a prayer to be lit of.
3. The void of faces breaking at all points and falling asunder into busy
groups. (J.J)
4. As he walked home with silent companions, a thick fog seemed to compass
his mind.

Trite metaphors
5. The white arms of roads, their promise of close embraces and the black
arms of tall ships that stand against the moon, their tale of distant nations (J.J)
6. It struck me to the heart when he told me this. (D. D)
7. England has two eyes, Oxford and Cambridge. They are he two eyes of
England and two intellectual eyes. (Ch. Taylor)

Activity 3. To find metonymies

Objective: to practice to find metonymies in the extract from literary text
Time: 15 min
Materials: handouts 2

►Procedure: ☺ A teacher gives instructions : To find metonymies from the literary

text and to classify them into trite and original. This is individual task.
STEP 1. A teacher distributes handouts to each student and asks to work
individually on the text.
STEP 2. Students will share with their findings. Teacher will lead the dispute
and tell the right version.
Possible answers
Trite metonymies
1. Looking up Denis saw two heads overtopping the hedge immediately above
him. (Ox)
2. A crow thronged its streets. (Ox)
3. I hope you will be able to send your mother something from time to time, as
we can give a roof over head, a place to sleep and eat but nothing else. (O’Henry)
4. He is the hope of the family.
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I never read Balzac in the original

Original metonymies
1. The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent
A mind at peace with all below
A heart whose love is innocent. (B)
2. From lips that move not an unbreathing frame,
Like covered winds the hollow accents came. (B)
3. And through the silence a distant noise of many boots and confused voices came
up the staircase. (J. J)
4. Murmuring faces waited and watches murmurous voices filled the dark shell of the
cave.
5. I love old Scott, the flexible lips said;
I think he writes something lovely. (J. J)
6. He was interested in everybody. His mind was alert, and people asked him to
dinner not for old times’ sake, but because he was worth his salt. (S. Maugham)
Activity 4. To introduce irony
Objective: to explain the stylistic device of irony.
Time: 15 min
Materials: handouts 3

►Procedure: ☺
STEP 1. A student makes presentation on the topic “Irony as a stylistic device”

STEP 2. Students will ask questions on the topic and teacher will clarify if
something isn’t understandable.

Activity 5. To practice to find irony in the literary text

Objective: to differentiate irony in the literary text
Time: 15 min
Materials: handouts 4

►Procedure: ☺ ☺ A teacher gives instructions : To pick out irony from the

literary text and to explain their usage . This is individual task.
STEP 1. A teacher distributes handouts to each student and asks to work
individually on the text.
STEP 2. Students will share with their findings. Teacher will lead the discussion
and tell the right version.

Summary:

146
Establish that the purpose of teaching metaphors, metonymies and irony is to help
students for better understanding the message of literary work, interpreting
literature, to enlarge their vocabulary, to be able to differentiate kinds of these
stylistic devices, to make their speech more lively.

Tasks:
1) to search for 10 sentences where used metaphors, metonymies and irony .
from literary works of English and American writers
2) to analyze these sentences.

Tasks for self study : to collect Internet materials on the topic, to prepare referat
work on the topics: Interaction of Logical and Nominal meanings.

HANDOUT 1 Activity 3
Differentiate between genuine and trite metaphors:

1. Then when Nature around me is smiling,

The last smile which answers to mine (B)
2. My color came and went, at the sight of the purse. (D. D)
3. So he took his leave, kissed me gain, told me he was very serious. (D. D)
4. I was still on fire with his first visit. (D. D)
5. It struck me to the heart when he told me this. (D. D)
6. England has two eyes, Oxford and Cambridge. They are he two eyes of
England and two intellectual eyes. (Ch. Taylor)
7. His countenance beamed with the most sunny smiles; laughter played around
his lips, and good-humored merriment twinkle in his eye. (D. D)
8. Denis did not dance, but when ragtime came squirting out of the pianola in
gushes of treacle an hot perfume in jets of Bengal light, then things began to dance
inside him. (J. J)
9. If only one could always be kin with so little expense of trouble. (J. J)
10. Her tone was decided, and even as she pronounced the words she was melting
away into the darkness. (J. J)

Handout 2 Activity 4
1. Looking up Denis saw two heads overtopping the hedge immediately above
him. (Ox)
2. A crow thronged its streets. (Ox)
3. I hope you will be able to send your mother something from time to time, as we
can give a roof over head, a place to sleep and eat but nothing else. (O’Henry)
4. He is the hope of the family.
5. I never read Balzac in the original

147
 6. The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent
A mind at peace with all below
A heart whose love is innocent. (B)
7. From lips that move not an unbreathing frame,
Like covered winds the hollow accents came. (B)
8. And through the silence a distant noise of many boots and confused voices
came up the staircase. (J. J)
9. Murmuring faces waited and watches murmurous voices filled the dark shell of
the cave.
10.I love old Scott, the flexible lips said;
I think he writes something lovely. (J. J)
11.He was interested in everybody. His mind was alert, and people asked him to
dinner not for old times’ sake, but because he was worth his salt. (S.
Maugham)

HANDOUT 3. Activity 5
Pick out ironies in the following sentences:

1. What a noble illustration of the tender laws of this favoured country! –

They let the paupers go to sleep! (Dickens)
2. I looked at the first of the Barons. He was eating salad – taking a whole
lettuce leaf on his fork and absorbing it slowly, rabbit-wise – a fascinating
process to watch. (Mansfield)
3. Henry could get gloriously tipsy on tea and conversation. (Huxley)
4.He could walk and run, was full of exact knowledge about God, and
entertained no doubt concerning special partiality of a minor deity called
Jesus towards himself. (Bennett)
5“Never mind”, said the stranger, cutting the address very short, “said
enough – no more…”
“This coherent speech was interrupted by the entrance of the Rochester
coachman, to announce that…” (Dickens)
6.I like a parliamentary debate,
Particularly when ‘tis not too late. (Byron)

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Seminar 5
Interaction of primary and derivative logical meanings. Zeugma and
pun.Antonomasia.Allusion.

Objective: To explain interaction of primary and derivative logical meanings, to

practice SD of Zeugma and pun; antonomasia, allusion to differentiate their types,
to define their functions in the sentences.
Lead- in:
Time: 10 min
Materials: board and markers, projector ,computer

►Procedure: ☺
STEP 1. A teacher shows on the screen several sentences on the screen
asks how it is created, what effect it adds to the utterance

1. Hooper laughed and said to Brody, "Do you mind if I give Ellen
something?"
"What do you mean?" Brody said. He thought to himself, give her what? A
kiss? A box of chocolates? A punch in the nose?
"A present. It's nothing, really." (P. B.)
2.It is not linen you are wearing out but human creature’s life!”
3. She lost her purse, head and reputation.
4. So, Juan, following honor and his nose.... (B)
5.Clara was not a narrow woman either in mind or body
6.What of that? More unequal matches are made every day

STEP 2. Students will try to answer the questions and teacher will clarify if
something isn’t understandable.

Activity 1 Presentation on the topic Zeugma and Pun

Objective: to explain what is the difference between zeugma and pun
Time: 15 min
Materials: projector ,computer

►Procedure: ☺ STEP 1. A student makes presentation on the topic “Zeugma and

Pun”

☺ STEP 2. Students will ask questions on the topic and teacher will clarify if
something isn’t understandable.

Activity 2. Listening to the extract from the fiction “Fisherman and his soul”
by Oscar Wilde
Objective: to practice to find zeugma and pun from the fiction
149
Time: 15 min
Materials: computer,head –phones, speakers

►Procedure: ☺ Ask participants to take post-it-notes with the names of 2 stylistic

devices in order to put them into two groups.
☺ ☺ ☺ Ask participants with post-it-notes with the same names of stylistic
devices to form a group.
STEP 1.Tell students that each of their groups will listen to the track and try to
find zeugma and pun from the extract. Teacher distributes handouts with the
extract from the novel.

STEP2. Ask representative of each group to share with their findings and
those of other students with the whole group.
☺ Check the answers and invite students to ask any other questions if they need
to clarify something.

Activity 3 Presentation on the topic Antonamasia and allusion

Objective: to explain what is the stylistic device of antonamasiaand allusion and
their peculiarities
Time: 15 min
Materials: projector ,computer

►Procedure: ☺ STEP 1. A student makes presentation on the topic “Antonamasia

and Allusion”

☺ STEP 2. Students will ask questions on the topic and teacher will clarify if
something isn’t understandable.

Activity 4. Listening to the extract from the fiction “Fisherman and his soul”
by Oscar Wilde
Objective: to practice to find antonamasia and allusion in the fiction
Time: 15 min
Materials: head phones, computer,speakers

►Procedure: ☺ Ask participants to take post-it-notes with the names of 2 stylistic

devices [antonamasia allusion] in order to put them into two groups.
☺ ☺ ☺ Ask students with post-it-notes with the same names of stylistic devices to
form a group.
STEP 1.Tell students that each of their groups will listen to the track and try
to find from the extract. Teacher distributes handouts with the extract from the
novel.
STEP2. Askrepresentative of each group to share with their findings and those
of other students with the whole group.
150
 ☺Check the answers and invite students to ask any other questions if they need
to clarify something.
Activity 5.Multiple choice Test
Objective: to check students knowledge of zeugma, pun, antonamasia and allusion
Time: 15 min
Materials: computer, handouts

►Procedure: ☺Teacher gives instructions :

Asksstudents to solve tests by their own. Sets the time. Then distributes
handouts with test materials.
☺Checks the answers and invite students to ask any other questions if they need to
clarify something.

1.There comes a period in every man's life, but she is just a semicolon in his
hyperbole
epithet
zeugma
inversion
2.She put on a white frock that suited the sunny riverside and her
hyperbole
epithet
zeugma
inversion
3.He stuck off his pension and his head together
Hyperbole
epithet
zeugma
inversion
4.Shy still imperial bride, unless, like he of Babylon
A. metonymy
B. repetition
C. simile
D. allusion

5.Mr. Scogan's eyes glittered like the eye of the Ancient Mariner.
A. Epithet
B. Oxymoron
C. Hyperbole
D. Simile
6. We can't allow dangerous maniac like Luther, mad about dogma like
Napoleon, mad about himself, to go on casually appearing and turning
everything upside-down.
A. Epithet
B. Oxymoron
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 C. Hyperbole
D. Simile

7. He is a Napoleon of crime.
A) Antonomasia
B) Simile
C) Periphrasis
D) Euphemism
8. The Shakespeare of our days.
A) Antonomasia
B) Simile
C) Periphrasis
D) Euphemism

9.Antonomasia is …..
A) Stylistic device based on the interaction of the logical and nominal
meanings of the same word
B) the interaction between the logical and the contextual logical meanings of a
word which is based on a likeness between objects.
C) stylistic device based on a different type of relation between logical and
contextual meanings
D) stylistic device based on the simultaneous realization of two logical
meaning- dictionary and contextual

10.The main function of antonomasia –

A) building up imagery and it mainly deals with generalization of concrete
B) to create images
C) to characterize the person simultaneously with naming him-is vastly use in
the so-called “speaking names”
D) to make the author’s thought more concrete, definite and clear

11.Allusion is….

A. a reference, by word or phrase, to a historical, literary, mythological,

biblical fact or to a fact of everyday life made in the course of speaking or writing
B. is a repetition of a phrase or statement from a book; speech and the like used
by way of authority, illustration, and proof or as a basis for further speculation on the
matter in hand.
C. is the exact reproduction of an actual utterance made by a certain author. D.
expanding the meaning of the sentence quoted and setting two meanings one against
the other, thus modifying the original meaning.

12.“Pie in the sky for Railmen”.

A) Antonomasia
152
 B) Simile
C) Allusion
D) Euphemism

Summary:
Establish that the purpose of teaching zeugma, pun, antonomasia and allusion
is to help students for better understanding the message of literary work,
interpreting literature, to enlarge their vocabulary, to be able to differentiate
kinds of these stylistic devices, to make their speech more lively.

Tasks:
1) to search for 10 sentences where used zeugma, pun, antonomasia and
allusion from literary works of English and American writers
2) to analyze these sentences.

Tasks for self study : to collect Internet materials on the topic, to prepare
referat work on the topics: Interaction of Logical and Nominal meanings.

SEMINAR 6
LEXICAL EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES
Interaction of Logical and Emotive Meanings

Interjections
The Epithet
Oxymoron

Objective: To practice interaction of logical and emotive meanings, to

practice SD of interjections, the epithet, oxymoron; to differentiate their types, to
define their functions in the sentences.
Lead- in:
Time: 15 min
Materials: board and markers, projector ,computer,head phones

►Procedure: ☺
STEP 1. Listening to a conversation. Emotional conversation where used
lots of interjections, epithets, oxymorons
STEP 2. To analyze the conversation. To answer the following questions:
What is the stylistic peculiarities of this conversation?
What stylistic devices are used in the conversation?
What do you think why do speakers use these emotionally coloured words?

153
Activity 1. What is interjections?
Objective: to introduce the stylistic device of interjections, and its types
Time: 15 min
Materials: projector ,computer

►Procedure: ☺
STEP 1. A student makes presentation on the topic “Interjections as a
stylistic device”

STEP 2. Students will ask questions on the topic and teacher will clarify
if something isn’t understandable.

Possible presentations.

Activity 2. Interjections in Karakalpak and English languages

Objective: to practice to find Interjections in Karakalpak and Russian
languages in the extract from fiction
Time: 15 min
Materials: Handouts 1

►Procedure: ☺ Ask students to take post-it-notes with the names of 2 stylistic

devices in order to put them into two groups.
☺ ☺ ☺ Ask participants with post-it-notes with the same names of stylistic
devices to form a group.
STEP 1.Tell students that each of their groups will listen to the track and try
to find zeugma and pun from the extract. Teacher distributes handouts with
the extract from the novel.
STEP2. Ask representative of each group to share with their findings and
those of other students with the whole group.
☺Check the answers and invite students to ask any other questions if they need
to clarify something.

Activity 3 Defyning epithets

Objective to enable students defining the type and functions of the epithets in the
following examples
Time 20min
Materials Handouts 3
►Procedure: ☺ Ask students to sit in pairs discuss the structure and semantics of
epithets in the following examples in pairs then to define the type and function of
epithets:
☺ ☺ STEP 1.Tell to discuss the structure and semantics of epithets in the
following examples in pairs. Teacher distributes handouts with the extract from
the novel.
STEP2. Ask pairs to define the type and function of epithets
154
 STEP 3. Ask pairs to share with their findings and those of other
students
☺Check the answers and invite students to ask any other questions if they need
to clarify something.

HANDOUT 1
He has that unmistakable tall lanky "rangy" loose-jointed graceful
closecropped formidably clean American look. (I.M.)
2. Across the ditch Doll was having an entirely different reaction. With all his
heart and soul, furiously, jealously, vindictively, he was hoping Queen would not
win. (J.)
3. During the past few weeks she had become most sharply conscious of the
smiling interest of Hauptwanger. His straight lithe body - his quick, aggressive
manner - his assertive, seeking eyes. (Dr.)
4. He's a proud, haughty, consequential, turned-nosed peacock. (D.)
5. 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. (H.)
6. Where the devil was heaven? Was it up? Down? There was no up or down in
a finite but expanding universe in which even the vast, burning, dazzling, majestic
sun was in a state of progressive decay that would eventually destroy the earth too.
(Js.H.)
7. 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.B.)
8. 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. (Jn.B.)
9. In the cold, gray, street-washing, milk-delivering, shutters-coming-off-the-
shops early morning, the midnight train from Paris arrived in Strasbourg. (H.)
10. Her painful shoes slipped off. (U.)
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 Activity-4
Objective to enable students to discuss the structure and semantics of oxymorons
in the following examples
Time 20min
Materials Handouts 4
►Procedure: ☺ Ask students to sit in pairs discuss the structure and semantics of
oxymorons in the following examples in pairs then indicate which of their
members conveys the individually viewed feature of the object and which one reflects
its generally accepted characteristic
☺ ☺ STEP 1.Tell to discuss the structure and semantics of oxymorons in the
following examples in pairs. Teacher distributes handouts with the examples
from the literary text.
STEP2. Ask pairs to indicate which of their members conveys the individually
viewed feature of the object and which one reflects its generally accepted
characteristic

STEP 3. Ask pairs to share with their findings and those of other
students
☺Check the answers and invite students to ask any other questions if they need
to clarify something.

HANDOUT 2
In the following sentences pay attention to the structure and semantics of
oxymorons. Also indicate which of their members conveys the individually
viewed feature of the object and which one reflects its generally accepted
characteristic:
1. He caught a ride home to the crowded loneliness of the barracks. (J.)
2. Sprinting towards the elevator he felt amazed at his own cowardly courage.
(G. M.)
3. They were a bloody miserable lot - the miserablest lot of men I ever saw. But
they were good to me. Bloody good. (J. St.)
4. He behaved pretty busily to Jan. (D. C.)
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

156
hiding art that it seemed she would lay them for a pattern. (Ph. S.)
6. There were some bookcases of superbly unreadable books. (E.W.)
7. Absorbed as we were in the pleasures of travel - and I in my modest pride at
being the only examinee to cause a commotion - we were over the old Bridge. (W.G.)
8. "Heaven must be the hell of a place. Nothing but repentant sinners up there,
isn't it?" (Sh. D.)
Summary:
Establish that the purpose of teaching epithet,oxymoron and hyperbole is to
help students for better understanding the message of literary work, interpreting
literature, to enlarge their vocabulary, to be able to differentiate kinds of these
stylistic devices, to make their speech more lively.

Tasks:
1) to search for 10 sentences where used epithet,oxymoron and hyperbole
from literary works of English and American writers
2) to analyze these sentences.

Tasks for self study: to collect Internet materials on the topic, to prepare
referat work on the topics: Functions of epithet , oxymoron and hyperbole in the
literary works of English and Karakalpak writers.

SEMINAR 7
LEXICAL - SYNTACTIC STYLISTIC DEVICES

Objective: To practice intensification of a certain feature of a thing or

phenomenon,to practice SD of simile, periphrasis ,euphemism,litote,climax,antithesis;
to differentiate their types, to define their functions in the sentences.
Lead- in:
Time: 15 min
Materials: board and markers, projector ,computer,head phones

►Procedure: ☺
STEP 1. Listening to a song,where used lots of simile
STEP 2. To analyze the song. To answer the following questions:
What is the stylistic peculiarities of this song?
What stylistic devices are used in the song?
What do you think why do speakers use these emotionally coloured words?

Activity 1. What is simile?

157
 Objective: to introduce the stylistic device of simile, and its types
Time: 15 min
Materials: projector ,computer

►Procedure: ☺
STEP 1. Activity 1. Discuss the following cases of simile. Pay attention to the
semantics of the tenor and the vehicle, to the briefer sustained manner of their
presentation. Indicate the foundation of the simile, both explicit and implicit. Find
examples of disguised similes, do not miss the link word joining the two parts of the
structure:
HANDOUT 1
1. The menu was rather less than a panorama, indeed, it was as repetitious as a
snore. (O.N.)
2. The topic of the Younger Generation spread through the company like a
yawn. (E.W.)
3. Penny-in-the-slot machines stood there like so many vacant faces, their dials
glowing and flickering - for nobody. (B.N.)
4. 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; As hard as a flint - as soft as a mole; As

white as a lily - as black as coal; As plain as a pike - as rough as a bear; As tight as a
dram - as free as the air; As heavy as lead - as light as a feather; As steady as time -
uncertain as weather; As hot as an oven - as cold as a frog; As gay as a lark - as sick
as a dog; As savage as a tiger - as mild as ц dove; As stiff as a poker - as limp as a
glove; As blind as a bat - as deaf as a post; As cool as a cucumber - as warm as toast;
As flat as a flounder - as round as a ball; As blunt as a hammer - as sharp as an awl;
As brittle as glass - as tough as gristle; As neat as a pin - as clean as a whistle; As red
as a rose - as square as a box. (O.N.)
5. She has always been as live as a bird. (R.Ch.)
6. She was obstinate as a mule, always had been, from a child. (G.)
7. Children! Breakfast is just as good as any other meal and I won't have you
gobbling like wolves. (Th.W.)
8. 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. (Wr.)
9. And the cat, released, leaped and perched on her shoulder: his tail swinging
like a baton, conducting rhapsodic music. (T.C.)
10. He felt that his presence must, like a single drop of some stain, tincture the
crystal liquid that was absolutely herself. (R.W.)

158
 STEP 2. Students will ask questions on the topic and teacher will clarify
if something isn’t understandable.

Possible presentations.

Activity 2. Discuss the semantic centres and structural peculiarities of antithesis:

Objective: to practice to find antithesis
Time: 15 min
Materials: Handouts 1

►Procedure: ☺ Ask students to take post-it-notes with the names of 2 stylistic

devices in order to put them into two groups.
☺ ☺ ☺ Ask participants with post-it-notes with the same names of stylistic
devices to form a group.
STEP 1.Tell students that each of their groups will listen to the track and try
to find antithesis from the extract. Teacher distributes handouts .
STEP2. Ask representative of each group to share with their findings and
those of other students with the whole group.
☺Check the answers and invite students to ask any other questions if they
need to clarify something.
HANDOUT 2
1. Mrs. Nork had a large home and a small husband. (S.L.)
2. In marriage the upkeep of woman is often the downfall of man. (Ev.)
3. Don't use big words. They mean so little. (O.W.)
4. I like big parties. They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy.
(Sc.F.)
5. There is Mr. Guppy, who was at first as open as the sun at noon, but who
suddenly shut up as close as midnight. (D.)
6. 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! (D.)
7. Rup wished he could be swift, accurate, compassionate and stern instead of
clumsy and vague and sentimental. (I.M.)
8. His coat-sleeves being a great deal too long, and his trousers a great deal too
short, he appeared ill at ease in his clothes. (D.)
9. There was something eery about the apartment house, an unearthly quiet that
was a combination of overcarpeting and underoccupancy. (H.St.)
10. It is safer to be married to the man you can be happy with than to the man
you cannot be happy without. (E.)

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 11. Then came running down stairs a gentleman with whiskers, out of breath.
(D.)
12. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom,
it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of
incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the
spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had
nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the
other way - in short the period was so far like the present period, that some of its
noisiest authorities insisted on its being received for good or for evil, in the
superlative degree of comparison only. (D.)
13. Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise,
a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream. Cannery Row is the gathered
and scattered, tin and iron, and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and
weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky tonks,
restaurants and whore houses and little crowded groceries and laboratories and
flophouses. Its inhabitants are, as the man once said "Whores, pimps, gamblers and
sons of bitches", by which he meant Everybody. Had the man looked through another
peephole he might have said "Saints and angels and martyrs and holy men" and he
would have meant the same thing. (J. St.)

Activity 3 Indicate the type of climax. Pay attention to its structure and the
semantics of its components:

Objective to enable students defining the climax in the following examples

Time 20min
Materials Handouts 3
►Procedure: ☺ Ask students to sit in pairs discuss the structure and semantics of
climax. in the following examples in pairs then to define the type and function of
climax.
☺ ☺ STEP 1.Tell to discuss the structure and semantics of climax in the
following examples in pairs. Teacher distributes handouts with the extract from
the novel.
STEP2. Ask pairs to define the type and function of climax.
STEP 3. Ask pairs to share with their findings and those of other
students
☺Check the answers and invite students to ask any other questions if they need
to clarify something.

HANDOUT 3
1. He saw clearly that the best thing was a cover story or camouflage. As he
wondered and wondered what to do, he first rejected a stop as impossible, then as
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improbable, then as quite dreadful. (W.G.)
2. "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.B.)
3. If he had got into the gubernatorial primary on his own hook, he would have
taken a realistic view. But this was different. He had been called. He had been
touched. He had been summoned. (R.W.)
4. We were all in аll tо 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. (D.)
5. Like a well, like a vault, like a tomb, the prison had no knowledge of the
brightness outside. (D.)
6. "I shall be sorry, I shall be truly sorry to leave you, my friend." (D.)
7. "Of course it's important. Incredibly, urgently, desperately important." (D.S.)
8. "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; Graver'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.W.)
9. "You have heard of Jefferson Brick, I see. Sir," quoth the Colonel with a
smile. "England has heard of Jefferson Brick. Europe has heard of Jefferson Brick."
(D.)
10. After so many kisses and promises - the lie given to her dreams, her words,
the lie given to kisses, hours, days, weeks, months of unspeakable bliss. (Dr.)

Tasks:
1) to search for 10 sentences where used simile,climax and antithesis
from literary works of English and American writers
2) to analyze these sentences.

Tasks for self study: to collect Internet materials on the topic, to prepare referat
work on the topics: Functions of simile , antithesis and climax in the literary
works of English and Karakalpak writers.

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SEMINAR 8

SYNTACTICAL EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES

Objective: To explain Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices

Lead- in:
Time: 15 min
Materials: board and markers, projector ,computer

►Procedure:
☺ (1 min) Teacher shows the following ppt on the topic on the screen; asks
students opinion on them.

Activity 1. From the following examples yon will get a better idea of the functions
of various types of repetition, and also of parallelism and chiasmus:
Objective: to explore various types of repetition, and also of parallelism and
chiasmus
Time: 15 min
Materials: paper ,pen, post-it- notes

►Procedure: ☺ Ask participants to take post-it-notes with the names of 2 flowers

in order to put them into two groups.
☺ ☺ ☺ Ask participants with post-it-notes with the same names of flowers to form
a group.
STEP 1.Tell students that each of their groups should talk on the given topic.
Teacher asks to give their definition and explain it with examples.
STEP2.Ask representative of each group to share their own definitions and
examples or those of other students with the whole group.
1. 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.Br.)
2. Babbitt was virtuous. He advocated, though he did not practice, the
prohibition of alcohol; he praised, - though he did not obey, the laws against motor-
speeding. (S.L.)
3. "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." (D.)
4. Halfway along the righthand side of the dark brown hall was a dark brown
door with a dark brown settie beside it. After I had put my hat, my gloves, my muffler
and my coat on the settie we three went through the dark brown door into a darkness
without any brown in it. (W.G)
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 5. 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 drearns. (J.Br.)
6. 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.W.)
7. 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.Br.)
8. Of her father's being groundlessly suspected, she felt sure. Sure. Sure. (D.)
9. 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. A.)
Activity 2. Find and analyse cases of detachment, suspense and inversion. Comment
on the structure and functions of each:

Objective: to practice to find detachment, suspense and inversion in the

extract from literary text
Time: 15 min
Materials: handouts 1

►Procedure: ☺ A teacher gives instructions : Find and analyse cases of detachment,

suspense and inversion. Comment on the structure and functions of each This is an
individual task.
STEP 1. A teacher distributes handouts to each student and asks to work
individually on the text.
STEP 2. Students will share with their findings. Teacher will lead the dispute
and tell the right version.

1. She narrowed her eyes a trifle at me and said I looked exactly like Celia
Briganza's boy. Around the mouth. (S.)
2. He observes it all with a keen quick glance, not unkindly, and full rather of
amusement than of censure. (V.W.)

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

4. 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! (D.)
5. It Was not the monotonous days uncheckered by variety anduncheered by
pleasant companionship, it was not the dark dreary eveningsor the long solitary
nights, it was not the absence of every slight and easypleasure for which young hearts
beat high or the knowing nothing ofchildhood but its weakness and its easily
wounded spirit, that had wrungsuch tears from Nell. (D.)
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 6. 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. (D.)
7. Corruption could not spread with so much success, though reduced into a
system, and though some ministers, with equal impudence and folly, avowed it by
themselves and their advocates, to be the principal expedient by which they
governed; if a long and almost unobserved progression of causes and effects did not
prepare the conjuncture. (Bol.)

Activity 3. Defining polysyndeton

Objective: to practice polysyndeton in the extract from literary text

Time: 15 min
Materials: handouts 2
►Procedure: ☺ A teacher gives instructions : Define the stylistic devise of
polysyndeton in the following sentences:
1.We have ships and men and money and stores.2.He ran and jumped and laughed
for joy.3.We lived and laughed and loved and left.
4.They read and studied and wrote and drilled. I laughed and played and talked and
flunked.5.You wouldn't believe how many exams I've got. I've got semantics and
pragmatics and sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics and syntax.6."If there be
cords, or knives, Poison, or fire, or suffocating streams, I'll not endure it." - From
'Othello' by William Shakespeare I said, "Who killed him?" and he said, 7."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 everything all blown and I got a skiff and went out and
found my boat where I had her inside Mango Key and she was all right only she
was full of water. - From 'After The Storm' by Ernest Hemingway.8."Let the white
folks have their money and power and segregation and sarcasm and big houses and
schools and lawns like carpets, and books, and mostly--mostly--let them have their
whiteness." - From 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings', an autobiography by Maya
Angelou

Summary:
Establish that the purpose of teaching is to help students for better understanding
the message of literary work, interpreting literature, to enlarge their vocabulary, to

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be able to differentiate kinds of these stylistic devices, to make their speech
more lively.

Tasks:
1) to search for 10 sentences of repetition, parallelism and chiasmus, detachment
from literary works of English and American writers
2) to analyze these sentences.

Tasks for self study : to collect Internet materials on the topic, to prepare PPT on the
topics “The role of syntactical stylistic devices in the fiction”, “Repetition and it’s
types” , “ The function of chiasmus”.

SEMINAR 9

PHONETIC EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES.

Objective: To enable students to differentiate phonetic expressive means and stylistic

devices in the fiction, to define their function and to teach to use them in their conversation in a
correct way.

Lead- in:
Time: 15 min
Materials: board and markers, projector ,computer

►Procedure:
☺ (1 min) Teacher shows the following ppt on the screen;asks students opinion
on them
Activity 1. Finding the onomatopoeic word in the text
Objective: to practice to find onomatopoeic word in the extract from literary
text
Time: 15 min
Materials: handouts 1

►Procedure: ☺ A teacher gives instructions : Find and circle the onomatopoeic

word also explain what makes this noise.
Comment on the structure and functions of each. This is an individual task.
STEP 1. A teacher distributes handouts to each student and asks to work
individually on the text.
STEP 2. Students will share with their findings. Teacher will lead the dispute
and tell the right version.
165
What made the noise?
_________________________________________________________________
2. As Daryl was gargling his mouthwash, he regretted starting his day with orange
juice.3. Keith threw his brother on the ground and the dishes fell to the floor with a
clatter.4. As the solider ran through the field, a bullet whizzed by his ear.5. Juan had
a hard time hearing the teacher over his grumbling stomach.6. Dissatisfied with her
work, Beth crinkled up the paper and threw it in the trash.7. The patient sounded like
he was hacking up a lung.8. I secretly ripped up the birthday checks that my
grandmother sent me.9. Jake was pleased when he heard the new pencil sharpener
hum efficiently.10. When he pressed on the gas, he took off so quickly that his tires
screeched.11. We all knew she was in the kitchen because the cabinet opened with a
distinct creak.12. If you’re going to cough, it is polite to cover your mouth.13. The
lion’s mighty roar could be heard across the Savannah and the Zebra ran in terror.14.
Wow, the race car zoomed past the finish line.15. My brother is the coolest because
he can burp the alphabet.16. You could hear the slap from across the room, but the
teacher did not seem to notice.17. Jake was doing the dishes and the clanging pots
and pans awoke the baby.18. Even after several months in captivity, the prisoner was
still terrified to hear the crack of the whip.
19. Billy will cry if you pop his balloon and then you will get in trouble.20. Janet
rested her head on the window pane and meditated as the rain trickled down the
gutter.21. Kristen looked away as the lunch lady plopped a scoop of something on
her tray.22. After making a rude remark, Jade snapped her fingers and rolled her
neck.23. The dim-witted pigeon repulsed us with its nerve crawling coo.24.Having
never left the city, Juan eagerly sniffed the country air.25. We all were taken back

Activity 2. Create Alliteration

Objective: to make students to work creatively , practice on commenting on the
structure and functions of alliteration
Time: 15 min
Materials: handouts 2

►Procedure: ☺ A teacher gives instructions : Read each sentence and add a word
to create alliteration in each sentence below so that the words have similar consonant
166
sounds and occur close together in a series.Comment on the structure and functions
of each. This is an individual task.
STEP 1. A teacher distributes handouts to each student and asks to work
individually on the text.
STEP 2. Students will share with their findings. Teacher will lead the dispute
and tell the right version.

Example A: I rowed the boat in the sinfully _________________ sea.

Answer: silent
1. Please put your _______________________ away.
2. I had to _______________________ home.
3. The lazy ______________________ lie like lumps.
4. Come and ________________________ your closet.
5. Peter __________________ petunias in the pot.
6. Sarah Cynthia __________________ Stout would not take the
garbage out.
7. The baron was a busy ______________________.
8. Go gather __________________ leaves in the garden.
9. Silly Sally swiftly _______________________ snow.
10. How much __________________ would a woodchuck chuck?
Activity 3 Discussion
Objective: to discuss the following cases of alliteration

Time: 10 min
Materials: handout 3
►Procedure:
☺ ☺ ☺ Put participants in groups of 3, distribute handout 3 and ask to pick out
alliteration in the extract from literary text .
☺ Check the answers and invite students to ask any other questions if they need to
clarify something.
1. Our dreadful matches to delightful measures. (Shakespeare)
2. The day is cold and dark and dreary.

167
3. Both were flushed, fluttered and rumbled by the late scuffle. (Dickens)
4. His wife was shrill, languid, handsome and horrible. (Sc. Fitzgerald)
5. … he swallowed the hint with a gulp and a gasp and a grin. (R. Kipling)
6. The wicky, wacky, wocky bird,
He sings a song that can‘t be heard…
He sings a song that can‘t be heard.
The wicky, wacky, wocky bird.
The wicky, wacky, wocky mouse.
He built himself a little house…
But snug he lived inside his house,
The wicky, wacky, wocky mouse. (N. Mailer)
Summary:
Establish that the purpose of teaching phonetic stylistic devices is enable students
to differerntiate them while reading fictional work and could to find their stylistic
functions and aim of the author using them. Besides to teach them to use these SD in
their conversation, to make their speech more lively.

Tasks:
1) to search for 10 examples of phonetic stylistic devices from literary works
of English and American writers
2) to analyze these sentences.

Tasks for self study : to collect Internet materials on the topic, to prepare PPT on
the topics ‘Functions of Phonetic stylistic devices in the literary works’ , “The
peculiarities of Phonetic stylistic devices in English and Karakalpak languages” .

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Stylistic Glossary
Phonetic Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices
Onomatopoeia is a combination of speech-sounds which aims at imitating sounds
produced in nature, by things, by people and by animals.
E.g.: ding-dong, buzz, bang, cuckoo, roar, ping-pong, etc.
Alliteration is the repetition of similar sounds, in particular consonants, in close
succession, often in the initial position.
E.g.: «Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before». (E. A. Poe)
Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in non-rhyming words as in, «some ship
in distress that cannot live».The i's in those words have same vowel sounds but they
do not have to rhyme. It doesn't have to rhyme and usually only the vowels rhyme.
Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar terminal sound combinations of words.
In verse rhyming words are usually placed at the end of the corresponding lines.
E.g.: «I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers». (internal rhyme) (Shelly)
Rhythm is a flow, movement, procedure, etc., characterized by basically regular
recurrence of elements or features, as beat, or accent, in alternation with opposite or
different element or features.
E.g.: «The high-sloping roof, of a fine sooty pink was almost Danish, and two 'ducky
' little windows looked out of it, giving an impression that every tall servant lived up
there»(J. Galsworthy).

Lexical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices

Bathos means bringing together unrelated elements as they denoted things equal in
rank or belonging to one class, as if they were of the same stylistic aspect. By being
forcibly linked together, the elements acquire a slight modification of meaning.
E.g.: «They grieved for those who perished with the cutter And also for the biscuit-
casks and butter». (Byron)

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Metaphor means transference of some quality from one object to another. In other
words, it describes one thing in terms of another, creating an implicit comparison.
E.g.: «In a caverni under is fettered the thunder, It struggles and howls at fits?».
(Shelly)
Personification is a description of an object or an idea as if it were a human being.
E.g.: The long arm of the law will catch him in the end.
Metonymy is the term used when the name of an attribute or object is substituted for
the object itself. It is based on some kind of association connecting two concepts
which are represented by the dictionary and contextual meanings.
E.g.: the Stage = the theatrical profession; the Crown = the King or Queen; a hand = a
worker; etc.
Metonуmу is a transfer of the name of one object to another with which it is in some
way connected.
E.g.: The hall applauded.
Irony is a figure of speech by means of which a word or words express the direct
opposite of what their primary dictionary meanings denote.
E.g.: It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one
pocket.
Irony is the clash of two opposite meanings within the same context, which is
sustained in oral speech by intonation. Bitter or politically aimed irony is called
SARCASM.
Е. g.: Stoney smiled the sweet smile of an alligator.
Zeugma is the use of a word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations
to two adjacent words in the context, the semantic relations being, on the one hand,
literal and, on the other, transferred.
E.g.: «Whether the Nymph Shall stain her Honour or her new Brocade Or lose her
Heart or necklace at a Ball». (Pope)
Zeugma – the context allows to realize two meanings of the same polysemantic word
without the repetition of the word itself.

170
E.g.: Mr. Stiggins ... took his hat and his leave.
Pun is another stylistic device based on the interaction of two well-known meanings
of a word or phrase, more independent than zeugma.
E.g.: What is the difference between a schoolmaster and an engine-driver? One trains
the mind and the other minds the train.
Pun is play on words.
E.g.: «Did you hit a woman with a child?» – «No, Sir, I hit her with a brick».
Epithet is usually an attributive word or phrase expressing some quality of a person,
thing or phenomenon. The epithet always expresses the author's individual attitude
towards what he describes, his personal appraisal of it, and is a powerful means in his
hands of conveying his emotions to the reader and in this way securing the desired
effect.
E.g.: wild wind, loud ocean, heart-burning smile, slavish knees, etc.
Epithet is a word or a group of words giving an expressive characterization of the
subject described.
E.g.: fine open-faced boy; generous and soft in heart; wavy flaxen hair.
Reversed Epithet is composed of two nouns linked in an of-phrase. The subjective,
evaluating, emotional element is embodied not in the noun attribute but in the noun
structurally described.
E.g.: «...a dog of a fellow» (Dickens); «a devil of a job» (Maugham); «A little Flying
Dutchman of a cab» (Galsworthy)
Oxymoron is 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.
E.g.: delicious poison, low skyscraper, pleasantly ugly, sweet sorrow, proud humility,
'She was a damned nice woman', etc.
Antonomasia is the interplay between the logical and nominal meanings of a word.
E.g.: «I suspect that the Noes and Don't Knows would far outnumber the Yesses»
(The Spectator)

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Simile is an expressed imaginative comparison based on the likeness of two objects
or ideas belonging to different classes (not to be confused with comparison weighing
two objects belonging to one class). Similes have formal words in their structure such
as like, as, such as, as if, seem.
E.g.: «I saw the jury return, moving like underwater swimmers...»
Simile is a comparison of two things which are quite different, but which have one
important quality in common. The purpose of the simile is to highlight this quality.
E.g.: Andrew's face looked as if it were made of a rotten apple.
Periphrasis (Circumlocution) is the use of a longer phrasing in place of a possible
shorter and plainer form of expression. In other words, it is a round-about or indirect
way to name a familiar object or phenomenon.
E.g.: a gentleman of the long robe (a lawyer), the fair sex (women), a play of swords
(a battle), etc.
Euphemism is a word or phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by
a conventionally more accepted one.
E.g.: to pass away/to join the majority (to die), a four-letter word (an obscenity), etc.
Hyperbole is a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of a feature essential (unlike
periphrasis) to the object or phenomenon.
E.g.: a thousand pardons, scared to death, «I'd give the world to see him», «I would
give the whole world to know», etc.
Cliche is an expression that has become hackneyed and trite.
E.g.: rosy dreams of youth, to grow by leaps and bounds, the patter of rain, to
withstand the test of time, etc.
Allusion is an indirect reference, by word or phrase, to a historical, literary,
mythological, biblical fact or to a fact of everyday life made in the course of speaking
or writing.
E.g.: «Pie in the sky for Railmen» means nothing but promises (a line from the well-
known workers' song: «You'll get pie in the sky when you die»).

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Syntactical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices
Represented Speech renders the character's thoughts which were not uttered aloud.
It is a purely literary phenomenon never appearing in oral speech.
E.g.: He looked at the distant green wall. It would be a long walk in this rain, and a
muddy one ... Anyway, what would they find? Lots of trees.
Parallel Construction is a device in which the necessary condition is identical, or
similar, syntactical structure in two or more sentences or parts of a sentence in close
succession.
E.g.: «There were,..., real silver spoons to stir the tea with, and real china cups to
drink it out of, and plates of the same to hold the cakes and toast in”. (Dickens)
Parallel constructions (or parallelism) present identical structure of two or more
successive clauses or sentences.
E.g.: Passage after passage did he explore; room after room did he peep into.
Chiasmus (Reversed Parallel Construction) is based on the repetition of a syntactical
pattern, but it has a cross order of words and phrases.
E.g.: «Down dropped the breeze, The sails dropped down." (Coleridge) "His jokes
were sermons, and his sermons jokes». (Byron)
Chiasmus is a pattern of two steps where the second repeats the structure of the first
in a reversed manner.
E.g.: Mr. Boffin looked full at the man, and the man looked full at Mr. Boffin.
Rhetorical Question is a statement in the form of a question which needs no answer.
E.g.: Why do we need refreshment, my friends? Why can we not fly? Is it because we
are calculated to walk?
Elliptical Sentence is a sentence where one of the main members is omitted.
E.g.: «Very windy, isn't it?»– «Very». – «But it's not raining». – «Not yet».– «Better
than yesterday».
Repetition is an expressive means of language used when the speaker is under the
stress or strong emotion.

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E.g.: «I am exactly the man to be placed in a superior position in such a case as that. I
am above the rest of mankind, in such a case as that. I can act with philosophy in such
case as that». (Dickens)
Repetition is observed when some parts of the sentence or sentences are repeated. It
is employed as a means of emphasis.
E.g.: A smile would come into Mr. Pickwick's face; the smile extended into a laugh;
the laugh into a roar, and the roar became general.
Anaphora is when the repeated word (or phrase) comes at the beginning of two or
more consecutive sentences, clauses or phrases.
Epiphora is when the repeated unit is placed at the end of consecutive sentences,
clauses or phrases.
Anadiplosis is structured so that the last word or phrase of one part of one part of an
utterance is repeated at the beginning of the next part, thus hooking the two parts
together.
Framing is an arrangement of repetition in which the initial parts of a syntactical
unit, in most cases of a paragraph, are repeated at the end of it.
Enumeration is a stylistic device by which separate things, objects, phenomena,
actions are named one by one so that they produce a chain, the links of which are
forced to display some kind of semantic homogeneity, remote though it may seem.
E.g.: «Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole
residuary legatee, his sole friend and his sole mourner. (Dickens)
Suspense is arranging the matter of a communication in such a way that the less
important, subordinate parts are amassed at the beginning, the main idea being
withheld till the end of the sentence. Thus the reader's attention is held and his
interest is kept up.
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». (Charles Lamb)

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Climax (Gradation) is an arrangement of sentences (or homogeneous parts of one
sentence) which secures a gradual increase in significance, importance, or emotional
tension in the utterance.
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». (Dickens)
Anticlimax is an arrangement of ideas in ascending order of significance,or they may
be poetical or elevated, but the final one, which the reader expects to be the
culminating one, as in climax, is trifling or farcical. There is a sudden drop from the
lofty or serious to the ridiculous.
E.g.: «This war-like speech, received with many a cheer, Had filled them with desire
of flame, and beer». (Byron)
Antithesis is based on relative opposition which arises out of the context through the
expansion of objectively contrasting pairs.
E.g.: «A saint abroad, and a devil at home». (Bunyan) «Better to reign in hell than
serve in heaven». (Milton)
Antithesis is a structure consisting of two steps, the lexical meanings of which are
opposite to each other.
E.g.: In marriage the upkeep of a woman is often the downfall of a man.
Asyndeton is a connection between parts of a sentence or between sentences without
any formal sign, the connective being deliberately omitted.
E.g.: «Soames turned away; he had an utter disinclination for talk, like one standing
before an open grave, watching a coffin slowly lowered». (Galsworthy)
Polysyndeton is the connection of sentences, or phrases, or syntagms, or words by
using connectives (mostly conjunctions and prepositions) before each component
part.
E.g.: «The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage
over him in only one respect». (Dickens)
Ellipsis imitates the common features of colloquial language, where the situation
predetermines not the omission of certain members of the sentence, but their absence.

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E.g.: «Nothing so difficult as the beginning». (Byron)
Inversion is broken word order.
E.g.: Into a singularly restricted and indifferent environment Ida Zobel was born.
Break-in-the-Narrative (Aposiopesis) is a break in the narrative used for some
stylistic effect.
E.g.: «You just come home or I'll...»
Litotes is a peculiar use of negative constructions aimed at establishing a positive
feature in a person or thing.
E.g.: «He was not without taste ...» «It troubled him not a little ...»

176
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