The main division of expressive means. Lexical means of expressiveness.
The Literary and Nonliterary Language.
The literary language constantly enriches its vocabulary and forms from the non-literary (vernacular, colloquial). It also adopts some of its syntactical peculiarities and by doing so gives them the status of norms of the literary language. The norm of usage is established by the language community at every given period in the development of the language.
Thus literary language is a historical category. I.R. Galperin defines the literary language as "that elaborated form (variety) of the national language which obeys definite morphological, phonetic, syntactical, lexical, phraseological, and stylistic norms recognized as standard and therefore acceptable in all kinds and types of discourse. It allows modifications but within the framework of the system of established norms."
The literary language greatly influences the non-literary language. Many words, constructions and particularly phonetic improvements have been introduced through it into the English colloquial language. The English literary language was particularly regulated and formalized during the XVII and XVIII centuries. The influence over the non-literary language had its greatest effect in the XIX century with the spread of general education, in the XX century with the introduction of radio and TV.
It is difficult to specify the characteristic features of the non-literary variety because it does not present any system. Thus the best way to understand it is to contrast the non-literary form to the existing form of the literary English. The publication of dictionaries does much to establish the literary language norms, but at the very moment the norm is established it begins to fluctuate. Sometimes we may say that two norms co-exist, but one of them will give way to its rival and either vanish from the language completely or remain on its outskirts. This is particularly the case with pronunciation norms.
Stylistic Classification of the English Vocabulary
The classification of the English vocabulary is discussed for purely stylistic purposes. Some stylistic devices are based on the interplay of different stylistic aspects of words. The word-stock of any language is a system, the elements of which are interconnected, interrelated and yet independent.
In accordance with the already-mentioned division of language into literary and non-literary (colloquial), we may represent the whole of the word-stock of the English language as being divided into three main layers: literary, neutral and colloquial. The literary and the colloquial layers contain a number of subgroups. The common property, which unites the different groups of words within the layer, may be called its aspect.
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The aspect of the literary layer is its markedly bookish character. It is this that makes this layer more or less stable. The aspect of the colloquial layer is its lively spoken character. It is this that makes it unstable, fleeting. The aspect of the neutral layer is its universal character. This layer is the most stable of all, because it is unrestricted in use, it can be employed in all styles of language and in all spheres of human activity.
Neutral words form the bulk of the English vocabulary, they are used in both literary and colloquial language. Unlike these two groups, the neutral group of words does not have any special stylistic coloring, whereas both literary and colloquial words have a definite stylistic coloring. The following synonyms illustrate the relations which exist between the three layers: coll-daddy; neutral –father; literary-parent.
The literary vocabulary consists of the following groups of words:
1) Common literary.
2) Terms
3) Barbarisms and foreign words
4) Archaisms
5) Poetic words
6)Literary Coinages (including Nonce-words)
The colloquial vocabulary falls into the following groups:
Common colloquial words.
2) Slang
3) Professional and social jargons.
4) Vulgarisms
5) Dialectal words
The main division of expressive means. Lexical means of expressiveness.
Expressive means and stylistic devices are classified according to the principles of the levels of the language. We distinguish among phonetic, lexical, syntactical devices and expressive means. Lexical stylistic devices and expressive means are classified according to three principles:
· interplay of different types of lexical meaning.
Here we have metaphor, metonymy, oxymoron, irony, epithet, zeugma, pun;
(metaphor is based on the principle of identification of two objects; metonymy is based on the substitution of one object for another; irony, which is a stylistic device, based on the simultaneous realization of the two logical meanings (dictionary and contextual), but both stay in opposition to each other; thus, the word which has a positive evaluation realizes negative evaluation in the context. [It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one's pocket].
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· the interplay of primary and derivative logical meaning (the meaning, which can be registered as a secondary one and which is derived from the primary meaning by means of metaphor and metonymy). It consists of the following: zeugma, which is the use of the word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations to the two adjusted words; pun is a stylistic device based on the interaction of two well-known meanings of a word or phrase. The only reliable distinguishing feature between zeugma and pun is a structural one. Zeugma is a realization of two meanings with a help of a verb, which is made to refer to different subjects or objects, while pun is more independent and can be realized within the limits of the context, paragraph, text or even the whole novel.
· the interaction of logical (the precise naming of a feature, idea or phenomenon) and emotive (has reference to the feelings and emotions of the speaker towards the subject).
Here we have interjections, exclamatory words, which are words we use when we express our feelings strongly, which may be said to exist in a language as conventional symbols of human emotions. Epithet, which is a stylistic device used to characterize an object, pointing out some of the properties or features of the object with the aim of giving an individual perception and evaluation of these features.
Oxumoron, which is a combination of two words in which the meanings of the two clash, being opposite in sense.
Intencification of certain features of the object, one of the qualities of the object in question is made to some degree essential (simile, hyperbole, periphrasis, euphemism).
Simile is based on the characterization of one , object by bringing it into contact with another object belonging to an entirely different class of things.
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Periphrasis has a form of a free word combination or a sentence which substitutes a certain notion or thing.
Euphemism is a word or phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by a conventionally more acceptable one.
Hyperbole is based on a deliberate exaggeration of a feature, essential to the object or phenomenon.
7. Syntactical expressive means
Groups of Syntactical Stylistic Devices:
1. Stylistic Inversion, Detached Construction, Parallel Construction, Chiasmus, Repetition, Enumeration, Suspense, Climax, Antithesis.
2. Asyndeton, Polysyndeton, The Gap-Sentence Link.
3. Ellipsis, Break-in-the-Narrative (Aposiopesis), Question-in-the-Narrative.
4. Rhetorical question, Litotes.
Parallel construction is a device which may be encountered not so much in the sentence as in the macro-structures dealt with earlier, viz. the SPU and the paragraph. The necessary condition in parallel construction is identical, or similar, syntactical structure in two or more sentences or parts of a sentence in close succession: “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).
Enumeration is a SD by which separate things, objects, phenomena, properties, action are named one by one so that they produce a chain, the links of which, being syntactically in the same position (homogeneous parts of speech), are forced to display some kind of semantic homogeneity, remote though it may seem: “The principle production of these towns…appear to be soldiers, sailors, Jews, chalk, shrimps, officers and dock-yard men” (Dickens).
Antithesis is a SD based on the author’s desire to stress certain qualities of the thing by appointing it to another thing possessing antagonistic features. e. g. They speak like saints and act like devils.
Climax (Gradation) is an arrangement of sentences which secures a gradual increase in significance, importance, or emotional tension in the utterance: “It was a lovely city, a beautiful city, a fair city, a veritable gem of a city” (Byron).”Little by little, bit by but, and day by day, and year by year the baron got the worst of some disputed question” (Dickens).
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8. Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices (onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance).
A phoneme has a strong associative and sound-instrumenting power. Due to its articulatory and acoustic properties certain ideas, feelings, images are awaken. It’s vivid in poetry. Onomatopoeia (sound imitation) is a combination of speech sounds which imitate sounds produced in nature (wind) by things (tools), by people (laughing), by animals (barking). ▲ plink, plink, fizz.
Direct onomatopoeia: words which imitate natural sounds. ▲ buzz. Indirect: combination of sounds which makes the sound of the utterance an echo of its sense. ▲ Камыши шуршат в тиши. Alliteration: repetition of similar consonant sounds in close succession. ▲ Functional, fashionable, formidable. Assonance: repetition of similar vowel sounds, usually in stressed syllables. ▲ Grace, space,pace.
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