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another function when used in the belleslettres style. We may call it an “exactifying” function. Words of foreign origin generally have a more or less monosemantic value. In other words, they do not tend to develop new meanings.
Literary Coinages (Including Nonce-Words). There is a term in linguistics which by its very nature is ambiguous and that is the term neologism. In dictionaries it is generally defined as 'a new word or a new meaning for an established word.’ Everything in this definition is vague. How long should words or their meanings be regarded as new? Which words of those that appear as new in the language, say during the life-time of one generation, can be regarded as established? It is suggestive that the latest editions of certain dictionaries avoid the use of the stylistic notation “neologism” apparently because of its ambiguous character. If a word is fixed in a dictionary and provided that the dictionary is reliable, it ceases to be a neologism. If a new meaning is recognized as an element in the semantic structure of a lexical unit, it ceases to be new. However, if we wish to divide the word-stock of a language into chronological periods, we can conventionally mark off a period which might be called new.
Common literary are easily recognized words and widely used by the majority of native and non-native speakers, e.g. sophisticated, fabulous.
They contribute to the message the tone of solemnity, sophistication, seriousness, gravity, learnedness, cf.:
He began to answer vs He commenced his rejoinder
Special literary words comprises:
Terms – words denoting objects, processes, phenomena of science, humanities, technique. They may be subdivided into:
Popular terms of some special spheres of human knowledge known to the public at large (e.g. typhoid, pneumonia);
Terms used exclusively within a profession (e.g. morpheme).
Archaisms – words which are practically out of use in present-day language and are felt as obsolete. They are subdivided into 2 groups:
Historical words, denoting historical phenomena which are no more in use (e.g. yeoman, vassal, falconet).
appendix (med.) — a small, narrow tube attached to the large intestine.
Archaic words (archaic forms) proper – those which disappeared in the course of language history and were substituted by newer synonymic words (e.g. thou wilt – you will; brethren – brothers).
Poetic words are used exclusively in poetry and the like. Many of these words are archaic: e.g. foe (enemy), realm (kingdom).
Others are morphological variants of neutral words: oft (often), list (listen), morn (morning).
Fоrеign words (neglige, au revoir, Bundeswehr) are words and phrases loaned from other languages. These words haven't undergone grammatical or phonetic assimilation.
Fr.: bonjour, Ital.: dolce far niente.
Lat.: alter ego, mirabile dictu.
Barbarisms are foreign words which have exact equivalents in the language thus being unnecessary: e.g. chic (stylish); bon mot (a clever or witty saying). They are considered to be part of the vocabulary of the given language constituting its peripheral layer. They are usually registered in dictionaries (apropos, vis-a-vis, etc.).
Neologisms are new words or expressions. These words have the connotation of novelty. Mainly these are terms with both new form and new meaning, e.g. audio typing; computer-buyer; to telecommute; electronic cottage. The word «slum» was first substituted by the word «ghetto» then by the word-group «inner town».
Colloquial words.
Common colloquial are words with a tinge of familiarity or inofficiality about them.
There is nothing ethically improper in their stylistic coloring, except that they cannot be used in official forms of speech. Colloquial words mark the message as informal, non-official, conversational.
Neutral vocabulary: His father has died.
Informal vocabulary: His old man has kicked away
Special colloquial words are slang words, jargonisms, vulgarisms and dialectal words.
Slang words are highly emotive and expressive. They lose their originality rather fast and are replaced by newer formations: e.g. go crackers (go mad); guru (god); belt up (keep silence); big-head (a boaster). Another definition of slang which is worth quoting is one made by Eric Partridge, the eminent student of the non-literary language.
“Slang is much rather a spoken than a literary language. It originates, nearly always, in speech. To coin a term on a writ ten page is almost inevitably to brand it as a neologism which will either be accepted or become a nonce-word (or phrase), but, except in the rarest instances, that term will not be slang“. In most of the dictionaries si. (slang) is used as convenient stylistic notation for a word or a phrase that cannot be specified more exactly. The obscure etymology of the term itself affects its use as a stylistic notation. Whenever the notation appears in a dictionary it may serve as an indication that the unit presented is non-literary, but not pin pointed. That is the reason why the various dictionaries disagree in the use of this term when applied as a stylistic notation. Some of slang words and phrases have become common in Modern English, e.g. mate, chap, to go in for, it’s up to you, chatter-box and many others.
Jargonisms replace those words which already exist in the language and stand close to slang (substandard, expressive and emotive), but, unlike slang they are used by limited groups of people, united either professionally or socially. Jargon is a recognized term for a group of words that exists in almost every language and whose aitn is to preserve secrecy within one or another social group. Jargonisms are generally old words with entirely new meanings imposed on them. The traditional meaning of the words is immaterial, only the new, improvised meaning is of importance. Most of the jargonisms of any language, and of the English language too, are absolutely incomprehensible to those outside the social group which has invented them. They may be defined as a code within a code, that is special meanings of words that are imposed on the recognized code—the dictionary meaning of the words.
Thus the word grease means ‘money’; loaf means ‘head’; a tiger hunter is *a gambler’; a lexer is *a student preparing for a law course*.
Jargonisms are social in character. They are not regional.
Professionalisms are unofficial substitutes of professional terms. They are used by representatives of the profession to facilitate the communication. e.g. bull (one who buys shares at the stock-exchange); bear (one who sells shares).
Social jargonisms are words used to denote non-professional things relevant for representatives of the given social group with common interests (e.g. music fans, drug-addicts, thieves, etc). Very often they are used for the purpose of making speech incoherent to outsiders.
Vulgarisms are coarse words with a strong emotive meaning, mostly derogatory, normally avoided in polite conversation. e.g. There is so much bad shit between the two gangs that I bet there will be more killings this year. The term vulgarism, as used to single out a definite group of words of non-standard English, is rather misleading.
The function of expletives is almost the same as that of interjections, that is to express strong emotions, mainly annoyance, anger, vexation and the like. They are not to be found in any functional style of language except emotive prose, and here only in the direct speech of the characters.
The border line between colloquialisms, slang words and vulgarisms is often hard to draw for there are hardly any linguistic criteria of discrimination.
Dialectal words are normative and devoid of any stylistic meaning in regional dialects, but used outside of them, carry a strong flavour of the locality where they belong. e.g. baccy (tobacco), unbeknown (unknown). This group of words is obviously opposed to the other groups of the non-literary English vocabulary and therefore its stylistic functions can be more or less clearly defined. Dialectal words are those which in the process of integration of the English national language remained beyond its literary boundaries, and their use is generally confined to a definite locality. We exclude here what are called social dialects or even the still looser application of the term as in expressions like poetical dialect or styles as dialects.
For example, a sandwich on a large roll with a variety of meats and cheeses may be called a grinder, a sub, a hero, or a poor boy, depending on the region of the USA. Similarly, a carbonated soft drink is called soda in many parts of the United States; in other parts it is called pop, and yet in others it is called tonic or soda pop.
With reference to this group there is a confusion of terms, particularly between the terms dialectal, slang and vernacular. In order to ascertain the true value and the
stylistic functions of dialectal words it is necessary to look into their nature.
Professionalisms, as the term itself signifies, are the words used in a definite trade, profession or calling by people connect ed by common interests both at work and at home. They commonly designate some working process or implement of labour. Professional isms are correlated to terms. Terms, as has already been indicated, are coined to nominate new concepts that appear in the process of, and as a result of, technical progress and the development of science.
Professional words name anew already-existing concepts, tools or instruments, and have the typical properties of a special code. The main feature of a professionalism is its technicality. 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 and enter the neutral stratum of the vocabulary. Professionalisms generally remain in circulation within a definite community, as they are linked to a common occupation and common social interests. The semantic structure of the term is usually transparent and is therefore easily understood. The se mantic structure of a professionalism is often dimmed by the image on which the meaning of the professionalism is based, particularly when the features of the object in question reflect the process of the work, metaphorically or metonymically. Like terms, professionalisms do not allow any polysemy, they are monosemantic.
Here are some professionalisms used in different trades: tin-fish ( = submarine); block-buster ( = a bomb especially designed to destroy blocks of big buildings); piper (—a specialist who decorates pastry with the use of a cream-pipe); a midder case (—a midwifery case); outer (=a knockout blow).
- to begin (neutral), to start (colloquial), to get started (formal), to commence (literary);
- to continue (neutral), to go on (colloquial), to get on (formal), to proceed (literary);
- to end , to finish, to be through, to be over, to terminate;
- child (neutral), baby (neutral), kid (informal), brat (colloquial), bearn, infant (literal), babe (colloquial);
- to rise (formal), to mount (colloquial), to ascend (literal);
- to leave (colloquial), to give up (neutral), to abandon (literal);
- valley (neutral), dale (literal);
- act (neutral), deed (literal);
- fair (formal), beautiful (neutral);
- to ask (neutral), to question (formal), to interrogate (literal).
4. In what way do the following texts differ in style? What is the difference due to?
(1) – They chucked a stone at the cops, and then did bunk with the loot. (slang, informal, colloquial)
- After casting a stone at the police, they absconded with money. (formal, literal)
(2) – King Charles was publicly decapitated. (more formal, literal)
- King Charles was publicly beheaded. (neutral, more informal)
- They chopped off King Charles’s head in the sight of anyone who cared to see it done. (colloqual)
5. State the type and function of literary and colloquial words in the following examples:
(1) The story of your romantic origin as related to me by mamma, with unpleasing comments, has naturally stirred the deepest fibres of my nature. Your Christian name has an irresistible fascination. The simplicity of your nature makes you exquisitely incomprehensible to me… (O. Wilde).
Poetic words (to attract the reader, to make the utterance understandable only to a limited number of readers) this manner is speech is not typical of him
(2) – Will it rain do you think?
- The shallow depression in the west of these islands is likely to move slowly in an easterly direction. There are no indications of any great change in the barometrical situation. (B. Shaw).
Parody, official style
(3) The Flower Girl: …Now you are talking! I thought you’d come off it when you saw a chance of getting back a bit of what you chucked at me last night. (Confidentially). You’d had a drop in, hadn’t you? (B. Shaw).
Colloquial words, Slang (to make speech expressive, emotional)
(4) “The scheme I would suggest cannot fail of success, but it has what may seem to you a drawback, sir, in that it requires a certain financial outlay.”
“He means’, translated to Corky, “that he has got a pippin of an idea but it’s going to cost a bit.”
Jargonism (give a negative connotation to the word and the meaning of the word) forst part - formal to show the social difference
(5) He kept looking at the fantastic green of the jungle and then at the orange-brown earth, febrile and pulsing as though the rain were cutting wound into it. Ridges flinched before the power of it.
The Lord giveth and He taketh away, Ridges thought solemnly.
Poetic words (epithet to make speech attractive)
(6) Be silent and hearken unto me, ye quaint little islanders. Give ear, ye men. Hear me, ye women.
Hearken to me then, oh ye compulsory educated ones.
Colloquial words (using a synonym to increase the importance of an action) archaic words, slang words
(7) “…some thief in the night boosted my clothes whilst I slept. I sleep awful sound on the mattresses you have here.”
“Somebody boosted…?”
“Pinched. Jobbed. Swiped. Stole,” he says happily.
Colloquial words (to make speech expressive)
(8) "Now take fried, crocked, squiffed, loaded, plastered, blotto, tiddled, soaked, boiled, stinko, viled, polluted."
"Yes," I said.
"That's the next set of words I am decreasing my vocabulary by", said Atherton. "Tossing them all out in favor of-"
"Intoxicated?" I supplied.
"I favor fried," said Atherton. "It's shorter and monosyllabic, even though it may sound a little harsher to the squeamish-minded."
"But there are degrees of difference," I objected. "Just being tiddled isn't the same as being blotto, or-"
"When you get into the vocabulary-decreasing business," he interrupted, "you don't bother with technicalities. You throw out the whole kit and caboodle - I mean the whole bunch," he hastily corrected himself.
Colloquial words
(9) 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.
The word modern for him has his own connotative meaning, that’s why it is written in italics (irony), modern doesn’t mean good for him.
(10) "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."
We can see that one speaker interrupted another one. Colloquial words and jargonisms are used here.
(11) "The only thing that counts in his eyes is solid achievement. Sometimes I have been prostrate with fatigue. He calls it idleness. I need the stimulation of good company. He terms this riff-raff. The plain fact is, I am misunderstood."
On the whole the text seems rather formal and literal, but there is only one word – riff-raff- which is a slang word and maybe the author wanted to pint at the fact that that man is not very smart.
(12) "Obviously an emissary of Mr. Bunyan had obtained clandestine access to her apartment in her absence and purloined the communication in question." It took Lord Uffenham some moments to work this out, but eventually he unravelled it and was able to translate it from his butler's language. What the man was trying to say was that some low blister, bought with Bunyan's gold, had sneaked into the girl's flat and pinched the bally things.
Here is a formal style, a lot of literal words.
(13) ''I say, old boy, where do you hang out?" Mr. Pickwick responded that he was at present suspended at the George and Vulture.
Literal, but with a slang expression: old boy, which means a close friend.
(14) "Also it will cost him a hundred bucks as a retainer."
"Huh?" Suspicious again. Stick to basic English.
"Hundred dollars," I said. "Iron men. Fish. Bucks to the number of one hundred. Me no money, me no come. Savvy?" I began to count a hundred with both hands.
Here we can see a deviation, using of slang, the author wanted to show a specific way of speaking of the hero.
(15) "That's so, my lord. I remember having tae du much the same thing, mony years since, in an inquest upon a sailing vessel that ran aground in the estuary and got broken up by bumping herself to bits in a gale. The insurance folk thocht that the accident wasna a'tegither straightforward. We tuk it upon oorsels tae demonstrate that wi' the wind and tide setti' as they did, the boat should ha' been wellaway fra' the shore if they started at the hour they claimed tae ha' done. We lost the case, but I've never altered my opeenion."
Literary Coinages (Including Nonce-Words). There is a term in linguistics which by its very nature is ambiguous and that is the term neologism. In dictionaries it is generally defined as 'a new word or a new meaning for an established word.’ Everything in this definition is vague. How long should words or their meanings be regarded as new? Which words of those that appear as new in the language, say during the life-time of one generation, can be regarded as established? It is suggestive that the latest editions of certain dictionaries avoid the use of the stylistic notation “neologism” apparently because of its ambiguous character. If a word is fixed in a dictionary and provided that the dictionary is reliable, it ceases to be a neologism. If a new meaning is recognized as an element in the semantic structure of a lexical unit, it ceases to be new. However, if we wish to divide the word-stock of a language into chronological periods, we can conventionally mark off a period which might be called new.
Common literary are easily recognized words and widely used by the majority of native and non-native speakers, e.g. sophisticated, fabulous.
They contribute to the message the tone of solemnity, sophistication, seriousness, gravity, learnedness, cf.:
He began to answer vs He commenced his rejoinder
Special literary words comprises:
-
Terms -
Archaic words -
Poetic words -
Foreign words -
Barbarisms -
Neologisms
Terms – words denoting objects, processes, phenomena of science, humanities, technique. They may be subdivided into:
Popular terms of some special spheres of human knowledge known to the public at large (e.g. typhoid, pneumonia);
Terms used exclusively within a profession (e.g. morpheme).
Archaisms – words which are practically out of use in present-day language and are felt as obsolete. They are subdivided into 2 groups:
Historical words, denoting historical phenomena which are no more in use (e.g. yeoman, vassal, falconet).
appendix (med.) — a small, narrow tube attached to the large intestine.
Archaic words (archaic forms) proper – those which disappeared in the course of language history and were substituted by newer synonymic words (e.g. thou wilt – you will; brethren – brothers).
Poetic words are used exclusively in poetry and the like. Many of these words are archaic: e.g. foe (enemy), realm (kingdom).
Others are morphological variants of neutral words: oft (often), list (listen), morn (morning).
Fоrеign words (neglige, au revoir, Bundeswehr) are words and phrases loaned from other languages. These words haven't undergone grammatical or phonetic assimilation.
Fr.: bonjour, Ital.: dolce far niente.
Lat.: alter ego, mirabile dictu.
Barbarisms are foreign words which have exact equivalents in the language thus being unnecessary: e.g. chic (stylish); bon mot (a clever or witty saying). They are considered to be part of the vocabulary of the given language constituting its peripheral layer. They are usually registered in dictionaries (apropos, vis-a-vis, etc.).
Neologisms are new words or expressions. These words have the connotation of novelty. Mainly these are terms with both new form and new meaning, e.g. audio typing; computer-buyer; to telecommute; electronic cottage. The word «slum» was first substituted by the word «ghetto» then by the word-group «inner town».
Colloquial words.
Common colloquial are words with a tinge of familiarity or inofficiality about them.
There is nothing ethically improper in their stylistic coloring, except that they cannot be used in official forms of speech. Colloquial words mark the message as informal, non-official, conversational.
Neutral vocabulary: His father has died.
Informal vocabulary: His old man has kicked away
Special colloquial words are slang words, jargonisms, vulgarisms and dialectal words.
Slang words are highly emotive and expressive. They lose their originality rather fast and are replaced by newer formations: e.g. go crackers (go mad); guru (god); belt up (keep silence); big-head (a boaster). Another definition of slang which is worth quoting is one made by Eric Partridge, the eminent student of the non-literary language.
“Slang is much rather a spoken than a literary language. It originates, nearly always, in speech. To coin a term on a writ ten page is almost inevitably to brand it as a neologism which will either be accepted or become a nonce-word (or phrase), but, except in the rarest instances, that term will not be slang“. In most of the dictionaries si. (slang) is used as convenient stylistic notation for a word or a phrase that cannot be specified more exactly. The obscure etymology of the term itself affects its use as a stylistic notation. Whenever the notation appears in a dictionary it may serve as an indication that the unit presented is non-literary, but not pin pointed. That is the reason why the various dictionaries disagree in the use of this term when applied as a stylistic notation. Some of slang words and phrases have become common in Modern English, e.g. mate, chap, to go in for, it’s up to you, chatter-box and many others.
Jargonisms replace those words which already exist in the language and stand close to slang (substandard, expressive and emotive), but, unlike slang they are used by limited groups of people, united either professionally or socially. Jargon is a recognized term for a group of words that exists in almost every language and whose aitn is to preserve secrecy within one or another social group. Jargonisms are generally old words with entirely new meanings imposed on them. The traditional meaning of the words is immaterial, only the new, improvised meaning is of importance. Most of the jargonisms of any language, and of the English language too, are absolutely incomprehensible to those outside the social group which has invented them. They may be defined as a code within a code, that is special meanings of words that are imposed on the recognized code—the dictionary meaning of the words.
Thus the word grease means ‘money’; loaf means ‘head’; a tiger hunter is *a gambler’; a lexer is *a student preparing for a law course*.
Jargonisms are social in character. They are not regional.
Professionalisms are unofficial substitutes of professional terms. They are used by representatives of the profession to facilitate the communication. e.g. bull (one who buys shares at the stock-exchange); bear (one who sells shares).
Social jargonisms are words used to denote non-professional things relevant for representatives of the given social group with common interests (e.g. music fans, drug-addicts, thieves, etc). Very often they are used for the purpose of making speech incoherent to outsiders.
Vulgarisms are coarse words with a strong emotive meaning, mostly derogatory, normally avoided in polite conversation. e.g. There is so much bad shit between the two gangs that I bet there will be more killings this year. The term vulgarism, as used to single out a definite group of words of non-standard English, is rather misleading.
The function of expletives is almost the same as that of interjections, that is to express strong emotions, mainly annoyance, anger, vexation and the like. They are not to be found in any functional style of language except emotive prose, and here only in the direct speech of the characters.
The border line between colloquialisms, slang words and vulgarisms is often hard to draw for there are hardly any linguistic criteria of discrimination.
Dialectal words are normative and devoid of any stylistic meaning in regional dialects, but used outside of them, carry a strong flavour of the locality where they belong. e.g. baccy (tobacco), unbeknown (unknown). This group of words is obviously opposed to the other groups of the non-literary English vocabulary and therefore its stylistic functions can be more or less clearly defined. Dialectal words are those which in the process of integration of the English national language remained beyond its literary boundaries, and their use is generally confined to a definite locality. We exclude here what are called social dialects or even the still looser application of the term as in expressions like poetical dialect or styles as dialects.
For example, a sandwich on a large roll with a variety of meats and cheeses may be called a grinder, a sub, a hero, or a poor boy, depending on the region of the USA. Similarly, a carbonated soft drink is called soda in many parts of the United States; in other parts it is called pop, and yet in others it is called tonic or soda pop.
With reference to this group there is a confusion of terms, particularly between the terms dialectal, slang and vernacular. In order to ascertain the true value and the
stylistic functions of dialectal words it is necessary to look into their nature.
Professionalisms, as the term itself signifies, are the words used in a definite trade, profession or calling by people connect ed by common interests both at work and at home. They commonly designate some working process or implement of labour. Professional isms are correlated to terms. Terms, as has already been indicated, are coined to nominate new concepts that appear in the process of, and as a result of, technical progress and the development of science.
Professional words name anew already-existing concepts, tools or instruments, and have the typical properties of a special code. The main feature of a professionalism is its technicality. 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 and enter the neutral stratum of the vocabulary. Professionalisms generally remain in circulation within a definite community, as they are linked to a common occupation and common social interests. The semantic structure of the term is usually transparent and is therefore easily understood. The se mantic structure of a professionalism is often dimmed by the image on which the meaning of the professionalism is based, particularly when the features of the object in question reflect the process of the work, metaphorically or metonymically. Like terms, professionalisms do not allow any polysemy, they are monosemantic.
Here are some professionalisms used in different trades: tin-fish ( = submarine); block-buster ( = a bomb especially designed to destroy blocks of big buildings); piper (—a specialist who decorates pastry with the use of a cream-pipe); a midder case (—a midwifery case); outer (=a knockout blow).
-
Explain the difference in functional stylistic (and sometimes other components of) connotation among the members of the following groups of words:
- to begin (neutral), to start (colloquial), to get started (formal), to commence (literary);
- to continue (neutral), to go on (colloquial), to get on (formal), to proceed (literary);
- to end , to finish, to be through, to be over, to terminate;
- child (neutral), baby (neutral), kid (informal), brat (colloquial), bearn, infant (literal), babe (colloquial);
- to rise (formal), to mount (colloquial), to ascend (literal);
- to leave (colloquial), to give up (neutral), to abandon (literal);
- valley (neutral), dale (literal);
- act (neutral), deed (literal);
- fair (formal), beautiful (neutral);
- to ask (neutral), to question (formal), to interrogate (literal).
4. In what way do the following texts differ in style? What is the difference due to?
(1) – They chucked a stone at the cops, and then did bunk with the loot. (slang, informal, colloquial)
- After casting a stone at the police, they absconded with money. (formal, literal)
(2) – King Charles was publicly decapitated. (more formal, literal)
- King Charles was publicly beheaded. (neutral, more informal)
- They chopped off King Charles’s head in the sight of anyone who cared to see it done. (colloqual)
5. State the type and function of literary and colloquial words in the following examples:
(1) The story of your romantic origin as related to me by mamma, with unpleasing comments, has naturally stirred the deepest fibres of my nature. Your Christian name has an irresistible fascination. The simplicity of your nature makes you exquisitely incomprehensible to me… (O. Wilde).
Poetic words (to attract the reader, to make the utterance understandable only to a limited number of readers) this manner is speech is not typical of him
(2) – Will it rain do you think?
- The shallow depression in the west of these islands is likely to move slowly in an easterly direction. There are no indications of any great change in the barometrical situation. (B. Shaw).
Parody, official style
(3) The Flower Girl: …Now you are talking! I thought you’d come off it when you saw a chance of getting back a bit of what you chucked at me last night. (Confidentially). You’d had a drop in, hadn’t you? (B. Shaw).
Colloquial words, Slang (to make speech expressive, emotional)
(4) “The scheme I would suggest cannot fail of success, but it has what may seem to you a drawback, sir, in that it requires a certain financial outlay.”
“He means’, translated to Corky, “that he has got a pippin of an idea but it’s going to cost a bit.”
Jargonism (give a negative connotation to the word and the meaning of the word) forst part - formal to show the social difference
(5) He kept looking at the fantastic green of the jungle and then at the orange-brown earth, febrile and pulsing as though the rain were cutting wound into it. Ridges flinched before the power of it.
The Lord giveth and He taketh away, Ridges thought solemnly.
Poetic words (epithet to make speech attractive)
(6) Be silent and hearken unto me, ye quaint little islanders. Give ear, ye men. Hear me, ye women.
Hearken to me then, oh ye compulsory educated ones.
Colloquial words (using a synonym to increase the importance of an action) archaic words, slang words
(7) “…some thief in the night boosted my clothes whilst I slept. I sleep awful sound on the mattresses you have here.”
“Somebody boosted…?”
“Pinched. Jobbed. Swiped. Stole,” he says happily.
Colloquial words (to make speech expressive)
(8) "Now take fried, crocked, squiffed, loaded, plastered, blotto, tiddled, soaked, boiled, stinko, viled, polluted."
"Yes," I said.
"That's the next set of words I am decreasing my vocabulary by", said Atherton. "Tossing them all out in favor of-"
"Intoxicated?" I supplied.
"I favor fried," said Atherton. "It's shorter and monosyllabic, even though it may sound a little harsher to the squeamish-minded."
"But there are degrees of difference," I objected. "Just being tiddled isn't the same as being blotto, or-"
"When you get into the vocabulary-decreasing business," he interrupted, "you don't bother with technicalities. You throw out the whole kit and caboodle - I mean the whole bunch," he hastily corrected himself.
Colloquial words
(9) 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.
The word modern for him has his own connotative meaning, that’s why it is written in italics (irony), modern doesn’t mean good for him.
(10) "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."
We can see that one speaker interrupted another one. Colloquial words and jargonisms are used here.
(11) "The only thing that counts in his eyes is solid achievement. Sometimes I have been prostrate with fatigue. He calls it idleness. I need the stimulation of good company. He terms this riff-raff. The plain fact is, I am misunderstood."
On the whole the text seems rather formal and literal, but there is only one word – riff-raff- which is a slang word and maybe the author wanted to pint at the fact that that man is not very smart.
(12) "Obviously an emissary of Mr. Bunyan had obtained clandestine access to her apartment in her absence and purloined the communication in question." It took Lord Uffenham some moments to work this out, but eventually he unravelled it and was able to translate it from his butler's language. What the man was trying to say was that some low blister, bought with Bunyan's gold, had sneaked into the girl's flat and pinched the bally things.
Here is a formal style, a lot of literal words.
(13) ''I say, old boy, where do you hang out?" Mr. Pickwick responded that he was at present suspended at the George and Vulture.
Literal, but with a slang expression: old boy, which means a close friend.
(14) "Also it will cost him a hundred bucks as a retainer."
"Huh?" Suspicious again. Stick to basic English.
"Hundred dollars," I said. "Iron men. Fish. Bucks to the number of one hundred. Me no money, me no come. Savvy?" I began to count a hundred with both hands.
Here we can see a deviation, using of slang, the author wanted to show a specific way of speaking of the hero.
(15) "That's so, my lord. I remember having tae du much the same thing, mony years since, in an inquest upon a sailing vessel that ran aground in the estuary and got broken up by bumping herself to bits in a gale. The insurance folk thocht that the accident wasna a'tegither straightforward. We tuk it upon oorsels tae demonstrate that wi' the wind and tide setti' as they did, the boat should ha' been wellaway fra' the shore if they started at the hour they claimed tae ha' done. We lost the case, but I've never altered my opeenion."