Файл: Otvety_po_stilistike-798.doc

Phonostylistic devices of the syntagmatic level: rhythm, types of rhythm

Rhythm exists in all spheres of human activity and assumes multifarious forms. The most general definition of rhythm may be expressed as follows: "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 elements or features" (Webster's New World Dictionary). Rhythm, therefore, is the main factor which brings order into the utterance. Academician V. M. Zirmunsky suggests that the concept of rhythm should be distinguished from that of metre. Metre is any form of pe­riodicity in verse, its kind being determined by the character and num­ber of syllables of which it consists. It follows then that rhythm is not a mere addition to verse or emo­tive prose, which also has its rhythm, and it must not be regarded as possessing "phonetic autonomy amounting to an 'irrelevant texture', but has a meaning." Permissible deviations from the given metre are called modifications of the rhythmical pattern. Some of them occur so frequently in classical verse that they become, as it were, constituents of the rhythm. It has already been pointed out that if rhythm is to be a stylistic category, one thing is required—the simultaneous "perception of. two contrasting phenomena, a kind of dichotomy. Therefore rhythm in verse as an SD is defined as a combination of the ideal metrical scheme and the variations of it, variations which are governed by the standard. Rhythm reveals itself most conspicuously in music, dance and verse. We have so far dealt with verse because the properties of rhythm in language are most observable in this mode of communication.

Compositional patterns of syntactical arrangement (detachment, reversed parallel 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. 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”. 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. In the English language detached constructions are generally used in the belles-lettres prose style and mainly with words that have some explanatory function. Detached construction as a stylistic device is a typification of the syntactical peculiarities of colloquial language. A variant of detached construction is parenthesis. Parenthesis is a qualifying, explanatory or appositive word, phrase, clause, sentence, or other sequence which interrupts a syntactic construc­tion without otherwise affecting it, having often a characteristic into­nation and indicated in writing by commas, brackets or dashes.

Chiasmus (reversed parallel construction) belongs to the group of stylistic devices based on the repetition of a syntactical pattern, but it has a cross order of words and phrases. "Down dropped the breeze, The sails dropped down". Chiasmus is sometimes achieved by a sudden change from active voice to passive or vice versa. It must be remembered that chiasmus is a syntactical, not a lexi­cal device, i. e. it is only the arrangement of the parts of the utterance which constitutes this stylistic device. "In the days of old men made the manners', Manners now make men,"

there is no inversion, but a lexical device. Both parts of the parallel construction have the same, the normal word-order. However, the witty arrangement of the words has given the utterance an epigrammatic character. This device may be classed as lexical chiasmus or chiasmatic repetition. Syntactical chiasmus is sometimes used to break the monotony of parallel constructions. But whatever the purpose of chiasmus, it will always bring in some new shade of meaning or additional emphasis on some portion of the second part. Like parallel construction, chiasmus contributes to the rhythmical quality of the utterance.

Newspaper style: the headline and the editorial

Newspaper style was the last of all the styles of written literary English to be recognized as a specific form of writing standing apart from other forms. Newspaper style contains the following basic newspaper features: 1) brief news items; 2) advertisements and announcements; 3) the headline; 4) the editorial.

The headline (the title given to a news item or an article) is a dependent form of newspaper writing. It is in fact a part of a larger whole. The specific functional and linguistic traits of the headline provide suf­ficient ground for isolating and analysing it as a specific "genre" of journalism. The main function of the headline is to inform the reader briefly what the text that follows is about. But apart from this, headlines often contain elements of appraisal, i.e. they show the reporter's or the paper's attitude to the facts reported or commented on, thus also per­forming the function of instructing the reader. The practices of headline writing are different with different newspa­pers. Syntactically headlines are very short sentences or phrases of a variety of patterns: full sentence, interrogative sentence, nominative sentence, sentence with articles omitted, phrases with verbs, headline including direct speech.

The function of the editorial is to influence the reader by giving an interpretation of certain facts. Editorials comment on the political and other events of the day. Their purpose is to give the editor's opinion and interpretation of the news published and suggest to the reader that it is the correct one. Like any evaluative writing, editorials appeal not only to the reader's mind but to his feelings as well. Hence the use of emotionally coloured language elements, both lexical and structural. In addition to vocabulary typical of brief news items, writers of edi­torials make an extensive use of emotionally coloured vocabulary. Along­side political words and expressions, terms, cliches and abbreviations one can find colloquial words and expressions, slang, and professionalisms. The language of editorial articles is characterized by a combination of different strata of vocabulary.

Lexical eMs and sDs based on the interaction of primary and contextually opposed meanings (metaphor)

Metaphor The term 'metaphor', as the etymology of the word reveals, means transference of some quality from one object to another. From the times. of ancient Greek and Roman rhetoric, the term has been known to denote the transference of meaning from one word to another. It is still widely used to designate the process in which a word acquires a derivative meaning. A metaphor becomes a stylistic device when two different phenomena (things, events, ideas, actions) are simultaneously brought to mind by the imposition of some or all of the inherent properties of one object on the other which by nature is deprived of these properties. Such an imposition generally results when the creator of the metaphor finds in the two corresponding objects certain features which to his eye have something in common. "Dear Nature is the kindest Mother still" (Byron) the notion Mother arouses in the mind the actions of nursing, weaning, caring for, etc., whereas the notion Nature does not. There is no true similarity, but there is a kind of identification. Therefore it is better to define metaphor as the power of realizing two lexical meanings simultaneously. Due to this power metaphor is one of the most potent means of creating images. An image is a sensory perception of an abstract notion already existing in the mind. Consequently, to create an image means to bring a phenomenon from the highly abstract to the essentially concrete. Thus the example given above where the two concepts Mother and Nature are brought together in the interplay of their meanings, brings up the image of Nature materialized into but not likened to the image of Mother. Metaphors, like all stylistic devices, can be classified according to their degree of unexpectedness. Thus metaphors which are absolutely unexpected, i.e. are quite unpredictable, are called genuine metaphors. Those which are -commonly used in speech and therefore are sometimes even fixed in dictionaries as expressive means of language are trite metaphors, or dead metaphors. Their predictability therefore is apparent. Genuine' metaphors are regarded as belonging to language-in-action, i. e. speech- metaphors; trite metaphors belong to the language-as-a-system, i.e. language proper, and are usually fixed in dictionaries as units of the language. antonomasia (a variant of METAPHOR) a trope which consists in the use of a proper name to denote a different person who possesses some qualities of the primary owner of the name: Every Caesar has his Brutus (O'Henry).

Lexical eMs and sDs based on the interaction of primary and contextually opposed meanings (antonomasia, personification)

The interplay between the logical and nominal meanings of a word is called antonomasia. As in other stylistic devices based on the interaction of lexical meaning, the two kinds of meanings must be realized in the word simultaneously. If only one meaning is materialized in the context, there is no stylistic device. Antonomasia may be likened to the epithet in essence if not in form. It categorizes the person and thus simultaneously indicates both the general and the particular. Antonomasia is a much favored device in the belles-lettres style. In Russian literature this device is employed by many of our classic writers. It will suffice to mention such names as Vralman, Molchalin, Korobochka and Sobakevich to illustrate this efficient device for character­izing literary heroes, a device which is now falling out of use. These Rus­sian names are also coined on the analogy of generally acknowledged models for proper names, with endings in -man, -in, -vich.

So far we have dealt with a variety of antonomasia in which com­mon words with obvious logical meaning are given nominal meaning without losing their primary, basic significance. But antonomasia can also make a word which now has a basic nominal meaning acquire a generic signification, thus supplying the word with an additional logical meaning. This variety of antonomasia is not so widely used as a stylistic de­vice, most probably due to the nature of words with nominal meaning: they tell very little or even nothing about the bearer of the name.

A personification is a figure of speech that gives an inanimate object or abstract idea human traits and qualities, such as emotions, desires, sensations, physical gestures and speech. In business and political news reportage, personification is commonly used to convey a sense of agency for otherwise abstract entities like nations, machines or corporations: US Defends Sale of Ports Company to Arab Nation. In English literature, personification is oft-used as a literary device: In John Keats's To Autumn, the fall season is personified as "sitting careless on a granary floor" and "drowsed with the fume of poppies".

Particular use of colloquial constructions (ellipsis, break-in-the-narrative)

Ellipsis is a typical phenomenon in conversation, arising out of the situation. This typical feature of the spoken language assumes a new qual­ity when used in the written language. It becomes a stylistic device. An elliptical sentence in direct intercourse is not a stylistic device. It is simply a norm of the spoken language. Ellipsis, when used as a stylistic device, always imitates the com­mon features of colloquial language, where the situation predetermines not the omission of certain members of the sentence but their absence. It would perhaps be adequate to call sentences lacking certain members "incomplete-sentences", leaving the term ellipsis to specify struc­tures where we recognize a digression from the traditional literary sen­tence structure. Thus the sentences 'See you to-morrow, 'Had a good time?'

Aposiopesis is a device which dictionaries define as "A stop­ping short for rhetorical effect." This is true. But this definition is too general to' disclose the stylistic functions of the device. In the written variety, a break in the narrative is always a stylistic device used for some stylistic effect. It is difficult, however, to draw a hard and fast distinction between break-in-the-narrative as a typical feature of lively colloquial language and as a specific stylistic device. The only criterion which may serve as a guide is that in conversation the implica­tion can be conveyed by an adequate gesture. In writing it is the context, which suggests the adequate intonation, that is the only key to de­coding the aposiopesis. Aposiopesis is a stylistic syntactical device to convey to the reader a very strong upsurge of emotions. The idea of this stylistic device is that the speaker cannot proceed, his feelings depriving him of the ability to express himself in terms of language. Break-in-the-narrative is a device which, on the one hand, offers a number of variants in deciphering the implication and, on the other, is highly predictable. The problem of implication is, as it were, a crucial one in stylistics. What is implied sometimes outweighs what is expressed. In other stylistic devices the degree of implication is not so high as in break-in-the-narrative. A sudden 'break in the narrative will inevitably focus the attention on what is left unsaid. Therefore the interrelation between what is given and what is new becomes more significant, inasmuch as the given is what is said and the new—what is left unsaid. Aposiopesis is a stylistic device in which the role of the intonation implied cannot be over-estimated. The pause after the break is generally charged with meaning and it is the intonation only that will decode the communicative significance of the utterance.