Practical Assignments for Independent Work

Independent Personal Work 1

Style, Stylistic Lexicology, Etc.

Item 1

«"He's gone off his rocket!" shouted one of the fathers, aghast, and the other parents joined in the chorus of frightened shouting. "He's balmy!" they shouted. "He's nutty!" "He's screwy!" "He's batty!" "He's dippy!" "He's dotty!" "He's daffy!" "He's goofy!" "He's beany!" "He's buggy!" "He's wacky!" "He's loony!" "No, he is not!" said Grandpa Joe.

Assignments for stylistic analysis

1. Define what neutral word [a) drunkard, b) mad, c) disobedient] slang equivalents substitute in the passage above.

2. Explain whether this extract presents a narration or a description.

3. Is there any emotional or qualitative climax in the extract? How do the words 'Wo, he is not!" fit all the other exclamations?

4. What is the sentence structure in the direct speech - simple/ compos­ite, complete/ elliptical? Do the exclamations manifest any definite style of language? What exactly?

5. What is the tone of speech in this extract: formal/ semiformal/ infor­mal/ conversational/ casual/ sympathetic/ cheerful/ vigorous/ serious/ humor­ous/ mock-serious/ lyrical/ dramatic/ excited/ agitated/ passionate/ impassive/ detached/ matter-of-fact/ dry/ impartial/ melancholy/ moralising/ unemotion­al/ pathetic/ sarcastic/ ironical/ sneering/ bitter/ reproachful, etc.?

6. What is: a) the basic theme, b) the idea of the episode?

Item 2

Reporter - "Madam, you may recollect that we printed yesterday your denial of having retracted the contradiction of your original statement. Would you care to have us say that you were misquoted in regard to it?"

Assignments for stylistic analysis

1. Explain what exactly speaks of the style of this passage? What style is represented?

2. How does the choice of words influence perception of the informa­tion? Define the tone of the note: formal/ semiformal/ informal/ conversation­al/ casual/ sympathetic/ cheerful/ vigorous/ serious/ humorous/ mock-seri­ous/ lyrical/ dramatic/ excited/ agitated/ passionate/ impassive/ detached/ matter-of-fact/ dry/ impartial/ melancholy/ moralising/ unemotional/ pathetic/ sarcastic/ ironical/ sneering/ bitter/ reproachful, etc.

3. State: a) the basic theme, b) the idea of the passage.

Item 3

"May it please the court," said an American lawyer to a Germanjustice of the peace before whom he was trying a case, "this is a case of great importance. While the American eagle, whose sleepless eye watches over the welfare of this mighty republic, and whose wings extend from the Allegh-enies to the Rocky Chain of the West, was rejoicing in his pride of place ""

"Shtop dare! I say vat hass dis suit to do тії de eagles? Dis suit hass nutin' to do mit de vild bird. It vas vun sheep," exclaimed the judge.

"True, your honour, but my client has rights and"

"Your gliant hass no right to de eagle."

"Of course not, but the laws of language"

"Vat I care for de laws of language, eh? I oonderstand de laws of de states und dot is enough for me. Talk aboudt de case alretty."

"Well, then, your honour, my client is charged with stealing a sheep and"

"Dat vill do! Dat vill do! Ten dollars fine, und der court vill adjourn."

Assignments for stylistic analysis

1. What is: a) the basic theme, b) the central idea of the passage?

2. Point out what layer of vocabulary the marked words belong to.

3. Define the context of the plot description. What exactly (vocabulary choice, pronunciation, the context itself) produces a humorous effect?

4. Analyse the style and tone of speech of both the interlocutors.

Item 4

"I am not to be lodged there!" the King said, with a shudder, that had something in it ominous.

"No," replied the grey-headed seneschal, who attended upon him un-bonneted." "God forbid! - Your Majesty's apartments are prepared in these lower buildings which are hard by, and in which King John slept two nights before the battle of Poicters."

"Hum - that is no lucky omen neither" - muttered the King; "but what of the Tower, my old friend? and why should you desire of Heaven that I may not be there lodged?"

"Nay, my gracious liege," said the seneschal, "I know no evil of the Tower at all - only that the sentinels say lights are seen, and strange noises heard in it, at night; and there are reasons why that may be the case, for anciently it was used as a state prison, and there are many tales of deeds which have been done in it."

[King] Louis asked no farther questions; for no man was more bound than he to respect the secrets of a prison-house. At the door of the apart­ments destined for his use, which, though of later date than the Tower, were still both ancient and gloomy, stood a small party of the Scottish Guard, which the Duke, although he declined to concede the point to Louis, had ordered to be introduced, so as to be near the person of their master. The faithful Lord Crawford was at their head.

"Crawford - my honest and faithful Crawford," said the King, "where hast thou been to-day? - Are the Lords of Burgundy so inhospitable as to neglect one of the bravest and most noble gentlemen that ever trode a courtl - I saw you not at the banquet."

---

"I declined it, my liege," said Crawford - "times are changed with me. The day has been that I could have ventured a carouse with the best man in Burgundy, and that in the juice of his own grape; but a matter of four pints now flusters men, and I think it concerns your Majesty's service to set in this an example to my callants."

From Walter Scott's Quentin Durward

Assignments for stylistic analysis

1. Decide what vocabulary layer the marked words belong to.

1. State the number of characters introduced in the episode. What are the theme and the tone of each part of the conversation?

2. Is the setting realistic/ historical/ fantastic/ exotic/ rural?

3. Analyse the style and the context (or their kinds) disclosed in the extract.

2. How can the notion of norm be applied to the extract? Point out con­spicuous expressive means and stylistic devices. What function and effect does each of them have?

4. Analyse how the notion "the author's voice" is revealed in the extract?

Theoretical items for independent personal consideration

1. The text ontology and gnosiology.

2. Approaches to the text definition.

3. Text and discourse.

Literature recommended

1. Домашнев А. И. и др. Интерпретация художественного текста (нем. яз.). - М., 1989. - С. 11-27.

2. Мороховский А. Н., Воробьева О. П. и др. Стилистика английс-кого язьїка. - К., 1991. - С. 201-211.

3. Разинкина Н. М. Функциональная стилистика английского язьї­ка.-М., 1989.-С. 98-122.

Independent Personal Work 2

Lexico-semantic Expressive Means

and Stylistic Devices, Etc.

Item 1

The insurance adjuster who had been investigating the fire turned to go.

"I came down here to find out the cause of this fire and I have done so," he remarked.

"That's what I want to know. What caused it?" remarked the house owner.

"It's a plain case of friction."

"What-ya-mean - friction."

"The fire was undoubtedly caused by rubbing a three thousand dollar insurance policy on a two thousand dollar house."

Assignments for stylistic analysis

1. Define a) the theme, b) the idea of the episode.

2. Does the dialogue present the theme in form of description or narration?

3. Is the plot simple/ complex/ intricate?

4. State whether the setting is realistic/ historical/ fantastic.

5. Analyse and explain the metaphor: "It's a plain case of friction."

6. Decide and explain whether the tone of the text is formal/ semiformal/ informal/ conversational/ casual/ sympathetic/ cheerful/ vigorous/ serious/ humorous/ mock-serious/ lyrical/ dramatic/ excited/ agitated/ passionate/ im­passive/ detached/ matter-of-fact/ dry/ impartial/ melancholy/ moralising/ unemotional/ pathetic/ sarcastic/ ironical/ sneering/ bitter/ reproachful, etc.

Item 2

There was a steaming mist in all the hollows, and it had roamed in its forlornness up the hill, like an evil spirit, seeking rest and finding none. A clammy and intensely cold mist, it made its slow way through the air in ripples that visibly followed and overspread one another, as the waves of an unwholesome sea might do. It was dense enough to shut out everything from the light of the coach-lamps but these its own workings, and a few yards of road; and the reek of the labouring horses steamed into it, as if they had made it all.

From Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities

Assignments for stylistic analysis

1. Analyse the theme and the idea disclosed in the extract.

1. Define whether the text is more narration or description. What is the author's role in it?

2. Is there any exaggeration in depicting the phenomenon?

2. Define the kind of context. Characterise semantic and structural types of metaphor in the passage. What effect does the metaphoric description produce?

3. Analyse stylistic value of the simile used in the passage. Is the clause "as if they had made it all" in the last sentence also an instance of simile? What is the semantic stylistic essence of this concluding part?

3. Explain whether the conjunction "but" introduces antithesis.

4. What effect is produced by the detached nominative clause "A clam­my and intensely cold mist"!

4. In what tone is the extract written? What words specify it?

Item 3

The summer passed slowly like some torturing thing reluctant to let go. The rains came just in time, for the oily leather leaves were curling with crispness and turning yellow with the septic threat of death. In places the ground had cracked open, exposing millions of swarming insects to the harsh scorch glare of the sun: they ran out and withered in a few hours. It was impossible to have open the windows of the Company office for fear of mos­quitoes and huge gnats pumped up with blood, but this did at least keep down the sickening stench of the river. It had shrunk during the summer to half its size, leaving a mass of grey, stagnant silt to bake and stink in the sun. The Animals instinctively kept away from it.

---

From David Clarke's The Turtles

Assignments for stylistic analysis

1. Define the style represented by the extract.

2. State the theme and the idea of the text.

3. What is basically presented in the passage - narration or description? Is there any emotional climax in the text?

4. Analyse: a) whether the setting is realistic/ fantastic/ exotic; b) what span of time the extract covers.

5. What is the tone of the extract? Choose three words or phrases which you think convey the unpleasantness of the weather or the landscape. Ex­plain how these words or phrases achieve their effects.

6. Analyse metaphor and explain simile in the excerpt.

7. Is/ are there any image/ images created in the context? Comment on your answer.

Item 4

Their own tea arrived and they prepared to begin. Attempting to break the silence Mr Stone found that he whispered, and the whisper was like gun­shot.

And then silence vanished. The door was pushed vigorously open and there entered a very tall man and a very small fair girl. The man was in mountaineering clothes, like one equipped for a Himalayan or at least Alpine expedition. He carried rucksack and ropes; his thick rough trousers were tucked into thick woollen socks, and these disappeared into massive lustre­less boots with extraordinarily thick soles. He created, by his masculine entry and the laying down of detachable burdens, as much noise as for two or three. The girl was soft and mute. Her slacks, imperfectly and tremulously filled, suggested only fragility; so did her light-blue silk scarf. The pale colours of her clothes, the milky fawn of her raincoat, and the style of her pale tan shoes marked her as a European.

From V. S. Naipaul's Mr Stone and the Knights Companion

Assignments for stylistic analysis

1. Analyse the style and way (1st/ 3rd person narration/ description) of the extract presentation.

2. Define the theme of the passage.

3. Recognise a stylistic device in the proper name Mr Stone and define its stylistic function.

4. Analyse how the beginning of the extract with the simile "the whisper was like gunshot" correlates with the second paragraph.

5. Name and explain the effect of the stylistic device the author resorts to in direct parallel portrayal of the man and the girl. Point out the words and phrases which manifest difference of these people. Do these lexical ele­ments represent any other stylistic devices? What detail is opposed to "light-blue silk scarf"? Define person-images.

6. In what tone is the extract written? Explain the idea of it.

Theoretical items for independent personal consideration

1. Divisibility and integrativity of the text.

2. Equipotential nature of the text.

3. Cohision and coherence of the text.

Literature recommended

1. Кухаренко В. А. Интерпретация текста. - M., 1988. - С. 70-89.

2. Мороховский А. Н., Воробьева О. П. и др. Стилистика английс-кого язьїка. - К., 1991. - С. 211-227.

Independent Personal Work 3

Syntactic Expressive Means and

Stylistic Devices, Etc.

Item 1

'"He was a remarkable man,' I said, unsteadily. Then before the appeal­ing fixity of her gaze, that seemed to watch for more words on my lips, I went on, 'It was impossible not to -'

'"Love him,' she finished eagerly, silencing me into an appalled dumb­ness.'How true! how true! But when you think that no one knew him so well as I! I had all his noble confidence. I knew him best. '

"'You knew him best,' I repeated. And perhaps she did. But with every word spoken the room was growing darker, and only her forehead, smooth and white, remained illumined by the unextinguishable light of belief and love."

"'You were his friend,' she went on.'His friend,' she repeated, a little louder.'You must have been, if he had given you this, and sent you to me. I feel I can speak to you - and oh! I must speak. I want you - you who have heard his last words - to know I have been worthy of him. ... It is not pride. ... Yes! I am proud to know I understood him better than any one on earth -he told me so himself. And since his mother died I have had no one - no one - to - to -'

"I listened. The darkness deepened."

From Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

Assignments for stylistic analysis

1. Define the basic theme and the idea disclosed in the extract. What contextual effect is produced by the introductory words "He was a remark­able man"l

2. Say whether the extract contains description or narration. Who is perceived as the author of the piece and what is his role in presenting the conversation?

3. Analyse the tone of the passage, the stylistic function of exclamations. Is the modality of speech of both the interlocutors the same?

4. What kind of climax - emotional, qualitative, quantitative - is observed in the extract? How is it expressed?

5. Analyse the sentence structure and functional peculiarities of: a) de­tachment; b) asyndeton; c) enumeration; d) tautology.

6. What is the significance of break-in-the-narrative in the text?

7. Explain the contextual stylistic function of the concluding metaphor "The darkness deepened."

---

Item 2

To write of someone loved, of someone loving, above all of oneself being loved - how can these things be done with propriety? How can they be done at all? I have treated of love in my published work; I have used it - with avarice, envy, revenge - as one of the compelling motives of conduct. I have written it up as something prolonged and passionate and tragic; I have written it down as a modest but sufficient annuity with which to reward the just; I have spoken of it continually as a game of profit and loss. How does any of this avail for the simple task of describing, so that others may see her, the woman one loves? How can others see her except through one's own eyes, and how, so seeing her, can they turn the pages and close the book and live on as they have lived before, without becoming themselves the author and themselves the lover? The catalogues of excellencies of the Renaissance poets, those competitive advertisements, each man outdoing the next in metaphor, that great blurt - like a publisher's list in the Sunday newspaper - the Song of Solomon, how do these accord with the voice of love - love that delights in weakness, seeks out and fills the empty places and com­pletes itself in its work of completion;, how can one transcribe those ac­cents? Love, which has its own life, its hours of sleep and waking, its health and sickness, growth, death and immortality, its ignorance and knowledge, experiment and mastery - how can one relate this hooded stranger to the men and women with whom he keeps pace? It is a problem beyond the proper scope of letters.

From Evelyn Waugh's Work Suspended

Assignments for stylistic analysis

1. Define the theme of the passage.

2. Analyse the role of the protagonist in the extract.

3. Describe syntactic and functional properties of the underlined clauses.

1. Characterise: a) all variants of repetition; b) parallel constructions and enumeration according to the types of connection, equality, and pragmatic effect; c) stylistically significant instances of detachment.

4. Explain the essence of the interrogative sentences and clauses.

5. Analyse stylistic functions of gradation within the passage.

6. Explain the metaphor "this hooded stranger".

2. Characterise the stylistic function of the utterance: "It is a problem beyond the proper scope of letters", and the idea expressed in the whole extract.

Item 3

To begin with the old rigmarole of childhood. In a country there was a shire, and in that shire there was a town, and in that town there was a house, and in that house there was a room, and in that room there was a bed, and in that bed there lay a little girl; wide awake and longing to get up, but not daring to do so for fear of the unseen power in the next room - a certain Betty, whose slumbers must not be disturbed until six o'clock struck, when she wakened of herself 'as sure as clockwork', and left the household very little peace afterwards. It was a June morning, and early as it was, the room was full of sunny warmth and light.

From Mrs Gaskell's Wives and Daughters

Assignments for stylistic analysis

1. Define the theme of the extract. Is it disclosed through (1st/ 3rd per­son) narration or description?

2. Describe the tone of the extract (whether it is casual/ sympathetic/ cheerful/ serious/ humorous/ mock-serious/ lyrical/ dramatic/ excited/ agitat­ed/ passionate/ impassive/ detached/ matter-of-fact/ dry/ impartial/ melan­choly/ moralising/ unemotional/ pathetic/ sarcastic/ ironical/ sneering/ bitter/ or reproachful, etc. ) and the author's attitude to the introduced characters. Explain the pragmatic peculiarity of the word "slumbers " and find stylistic devices in the following: "the unseen power in the next room — a certain Betty"; "she wakened of herself 'as sure as clockwork', and left the household very little peace afterwards". Say if there is any contrast be­tween the two girls, and whether the author resorts to direct or indirect char­acterization.

3. Analyse the structure and the pragmatic effect of the introductory sentence. Define the stylistic essence of the phrase "the old rigmarole of childhood".

4. Characterise all the other syntactic stylistic peculiarities of the pas­sage, analyse their functions.

1. Define the idea expressed in the extract.

Theoretical items for independent personal consideration

1. The text information category.

2. Factual and conceptual information in the text content. The notion of implication.

Literature recommended

1. Борисова Л. В. Практическое пособие по интерпретации тек­сти. - Минск, 1987. - С. 80-93, 10-46.

2. Долинин К. А. Интерпретация текста (фр. яз.). - М., 1985. - С. 4-142.

3. Пелевина Н. Ф. Стилистический анализ художественного тек­ста. - М., 1980. - С. 184-187, 229-234.

Independent personal work 4

Phonetics, Etc.

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Note: Measuring the rhythm of stressed and unstressed syllables alter­nation can be realized in the following metrical feet:

trochee - / ✓

/ ✓/✓/✓/✓| /✓| /✓| /

Monday, morning, thunder; Spider lumbers down the web

iamb - ✓/

/ ✓/✓/✓/✓/✓/ | ✓/ | ✓/ | ✓/ | ✓/

alive, astir, before, restart; The moon shines bright in such a night as this

dactyl - / ✓✓

/✓✓/✓✓/✓✓/✓✓| / ✓✓| / ✓✓| / ✓✓| /

Saturday, favourite, delegate; Merrily, merrily he will live now

anapaest - ✓✓/

✓✓/ ✓✓/ ✓✓/ ✓✓/ | ✓✓/ | ✓✓/ | ✓✓/ | ✓

interrupt, guarantee, overlook; He was free. Was he happy? The ques­tion is absurd

amphibrach- ✓/ ✓

✓/ ✓✓/ ✓✓/ ✓✓/ ✓| ✓/ ✓| ✓/ ✓

umbrella, emergence, botanic; We call it the bottom of hardships

spondee - / /

/ – / – / – / – | / – | / /

get up, maintain, jump on; He will read this, strong wish

(Scansion is defining the number of metrical feet within a line of verse: e. g. monometer (one foot), dimeter (2), trimeter (3), tetrameter (4), pen­tameter (5), hexameter (6), heptameter (7), octometer (8), etc. )

Item 1

The Tyger by William Blake

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? what dread grasp

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,

And water'd heaven with their tears,

Did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Assignments for stylistic analysis

1. Apply the notions of style, norm, context, image to this poem.

2. Define a) the basic theme; b) the central idea of the piece of verse.

1. What do the pronoun forms "thy", "thine", "thee" stand for? What layer of vocabulary do they belong to? Specify. Is there any morphological transposition?

2. Comment on the graphic means in the following: "Tyger", &, water'd. Do they also speak of poetic diction?

3. Whom does the author imply by the pronouns "he ", "his "? Say whether the questions are rhetoric and if they are directed to only one image? What effect does all this questioning produce?

6. State whether the pronounced with exclamation word "Tyger!" is direct address or a nominative sentence. What kind of repetition is this: "Tyger!" "Tyger!"! Does this variant of repetition help to understand the expressed emotion and attitude? What is expressed in this exclamation -fear, excitement, regret, joy, amazement, or any other feeling?

7. Does the poem contain any elliptical parts, or are those enumerated word combinations joined asyndetically?

6. Analyse the rhythm of the poem.

6. Define the type of rhyme: a) couplets/ triple/ cross rhyme/ framing; b) broken/ identical/ eye rhyme; c) single (masculine or male)/ double (fem­inine or female)/ treble (triple or tumbling). Point out instrumentation means (alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia).

10. Analyse the kind and contextual essence of metaphoric expressions in the poem.

11. Decide and explain whether the tone of the poem is casual/ sympa­thetic/ cheerful/ serious/ humorous/ mock-serious/ lyrical/ dramatic/ excited/ agitated/ passionate/ impassive/ detached/ matter-of-fact/ dry/ impartial/ melancholy/ moralising/ unemotional/ pathetic/ sarcastic/ ironical/ sneering/ bitter/ reproachful, etc. What effect is produced by the following words: burn­ing, immortal, fearful, fire, dare and dread (repeated several times), ham­mer, chain, furnace, deadly terrors, tears?

12. Analyse the stylistic essence of the utterance "Did he smile his work to see?" State the type and function of the stylistic device in the sen­tence "Did he who made the Lamb make thee (the Tyger)?"

13. The first four lines of the poem are repeated at the end of it. What kind of repetition is this? What effect does it produce? What does the substi­tution of "dare" for "could" in the fourth repeated line aim at?

14. Explain how the form of image presentation helps to perceive the author's attitude and the philosophic consideration.

Item 2

The Baltimore & Ohio R. R. Co.,

Pittsburgh, Pa.

Gentlemen:

Why is it that your switch engine has to ding and fizz and spit and pant and grate and grind and puff and bump and chug and hoot and toot and whis­tle and wheeze and howl and clang and growl and thump and clash and boom and jolt and screech and snarl and snort and slam and throb and roar and rattle and hiss and yell and smoke and shriek all night long when I come home from a hard day at the boiler works and have to keep the dog quiet and the baby quiet so my wife can squawk at me for snoring in my sleep?

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