Stylistic stratification of the English vocabulary
A term is generally very easily coined and easily accepted; and new coinages as easily replace outdated ones. This sensitivity to alteration is mainly due to the necessity of reflecting in language the cognitive process maintained by scholars in analysing different concepts and phenomena. One of the most characteristic features of a term is its direct relevance to the system or set of terms used in a particular science, discipline or art, i.e. to its nomenclature. When a term is used our mind immediately associates it with a certain nomenclature. A term is directly connected with the concept it denotes. A term, unlike other words, directs the mind to the essential quality of the thing, phenomenon or action as seen by the scientist in the light of his own conceptualization. Terms are mostly and predominantly used in special works dealing with the notions of some branch of science. Therefore it may be said that they belong to the style of language of science. But their use is not confined to this style. They may as well appear in other styles-in newspaper style, in publicistic and practically in all other existing styles of language. When used in the belles-lettres style, for instance, a term may acquire a stylistic function and consequently become a SD. This happens when a term is used in such a way that two meanings are materialized simultaneously. The function of terms, if encountered in other styles, is either to indicate the technical peculiarities of the subject dealt with, or to make some reference to the occupation of a character whose language would naturally contain special words and expressions. Many words that were once terms have gradually lost their quality as terms and have passed into the common literary or even neutral vocabulary. This process may be called "determinization". Such words as 'radio', 'television' and the like have long been in-common use and their terminological character is no longer evident.
Poetic words form a rather insignificant layer of the special literary vocabulary. They are mostly archaic or very rarely used highly literary words which aim at producing an elevated effect. Poetic words and expressions are called upon to sustain the special elevated atmosphere of poetry. Poetical tradition has kept alive such archaic words and forms as yclept (p. p. of the old verb clipian-to call, name); quoth (p. t. of owedan - to speak); eftsoons (eftsona- again, soon after), which are used even by modern ballad-mongers. The literary trends known as classicism arid romanticism were particularly rich in fresh poetic terms. Poetical words and word-combinations can be likened to terms in that they do not easily yield to polysemy. They are said to evoke emotive meanings. A poeticism through constant repetition gradually becomes hackneyed. Like anything that lacks freshness it fails to evoke a genuinely aesthetic effect and eventually call forth protest on the part of those who are sensitive to real beauty. Poetical words and set expressions make the utterance understandable only to a limited number of readers. It is mainly due to poeticisms that poetical language is sometimes called poetical jargon.
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Expressive means and stylistic devices. Approaches to their classification.
The notion of expressive means. Expressive means of a language are those phonetic, lexical, morphological and syntactic units and forms which make speech emphatic. Expressive means introduce connotational (stylistic, non-denotative) meanings into utterances. Phonetic expressive means include pitch, melody, stresses, pauses, whispering, singing, and other ways of using human voice. Morphological expressive means are emotionally coloured suffixes of diminutive nature: -y (-ie), -let (sonny auntie, girlies).
To lexical expressive means belong words, possessing connotations, such as epithets, poetic and archaic words, slangy words, vulgarisms, and interjections.
A chain of expressive synonymic words always contains at least one neutral synonym. For ex-le, the neutral word money has the following stylistically coloured equivalents: ackers (slang), cly (jargon), cole (jargon), gelt (jargon), moo (amer. slang), etc. A chain of expressive synonyms used in a single utterance creates the effect of climax (gradation).
To syntactic expressive means belong emphatic syntactic constructions. Such constructions stand in opposition to their neutral equivalents. The neutral sentence "John went away" may be replaced by the following expressive variants: "Away went John" (stylistic inversion), "John did go away" (use of the emphatic verb "to do"), "John went away, he did" (emphatic confirmation pattern), "It was John who went away" ("It is he who does it" pattern).
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The notion of stylistic devices. Stylistic devices (tropes, figures of speech) unlike expressive means are not language phenomena. They are formed in speech and most of them do not exist out of context. According to principles of their formation, stylistic devices are grouped into phonetic, lexico-semantic and syntactic types. Basically, all stylistic devices are the result of revaluation of neutral words, word-combinations and syntactic structures. Revaluation makes language units obtain connotations and stylistic value. A stylistic device is the subject matter of stylistic semasiology.
The classification suggested by Prof. Galperin is simply organised and very detailed. His manual "Stylistics" published in 1971 includes the following subdivision of expressive means and stylistic devices based on the level-oriented approach:
1. Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices.
2. Lexical expressive means and stylistic devices.
3. Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices".
1. Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices To this group Galperin refers such means as:
1) onomatopoeia (direct and indirect): ding-dong; silver bells... tinkle, tinkle;
2) alliteration (initial rhyme): to rob Peter to pay Paul;
3) rhyme (full, incomplete, compound or broken, eye rhyme, internal rhyme. Also, stanza rhymes: couplets, triple, cross, framingIring);
4) rhythm.
Lexical expressive means and stylistic devices
There are three big subdivisions in this class of devices and they all deal with the semantic nature of a word or phrase. However the criteria of selection of means for each subdivision are different and manifest different semantic processes.
I. In the first subdivision the principle of classification is the interaction of different types of a word's meanings: dictionary, contextual, derivative, nominal, and emotive. The stylistic effect of the lexical means is achieved through the binary opposition of dictionary and contextual or logical and emotive or primary and derivative meanings of a word.
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A. The first group includes means based on the interplay of dictionary and contextual meanings:
metaphor: Dear Nature is the kindest Mother still. (Byron)
metonymy:
The camp, the pulpit and the law For rich man's sons are free.
irony: It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one's pocket.
B. The second unites means based on the interaction of primary and derivative meanings:
polysemy: Massachusetts was hostile to the American flag, and she would not allow it to be hoisted on her State Bouse;
zeugma and pun: May's mother always stood on her gentility; and Dot's mother never stood on anything but her active little feet. (Dickens)
C. The third group comprises means based on the opposition of logical and emotive meanings:
interjections and exclamatory words:
All present life is but an interjection
An 'Oh' or 'Ah' of joy or misery.
epithet: a well-matched, fairly-balanced give-and-take couple. (Dickens)
oxymoron: peopled desert, populous solitude, proud humility. (Byron)
D. The fourth group is based on the interaction of logical and nominal meanings and includes:
antonomasia: Mr. Facing-Both-Ways does not get very far in this world. (The Times)
II. The principle for distinguishing the second big subdivision according to Galperin is entirely different from the first one and is based on the interaction between two lexical meanings simultaneously materialised in the context. This kind of interaction helps to call special attention to a certain feature of the object described. Here belong:
simile: treacherous as a snake, faithful as a dog, slow as a tortoise.
periphrasis: a gentleman of the long robe (a lawyer); the fair sex. (women)
euphemism: In private I should call him a liar. In the Press you should use the words: 'Reckless disregard for truth'. (Galsworthy)
hyperbole: The earth was made for Dombey and Son to trade in and the sun and the moon were made to give them light. (Dickens)
III. The third subdivision comprises stable word combinations in their interaction with the context:
cliches: clockwork precision, crushing defeat, the whip and carrot policy.
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proverbs and sayings: Come! he said, milk's spilt. (Galsworthy)
epigrams: A thing of beauty is a joy for ever. (Keats)
quotations: Ecclesiastes said, 'that all is vanity'. (Byron)
allusions: Shakespeare talks of the herald Mercury. (Byron)
decomposition of set phrases: You know which side the law's buttered. (Galsworthy)
3. Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices
Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices are not paradigmatic but syntagmatic or structural means. In defining syntactical devices Galperin proceeds from the following thesis: the structural elements have their own independent meaning and this meaning may affect the lexical meaning. In doing so it may impart a special contextual meaning to some of the lexical units.
The principal criteria for classifying syntactical stylistic devices are:
- the juxtaposition of the parts of an utterance;
- the type of connection of the parts;
- the peculiar use of colloquial constructions;
- the transference of structural meaning.
Devices built on the principle of juxtaposition
inversion (several types): A tone of most extravagant comparison Miss Tox said it in. (Dickens)
Down dropped the breeze. (Colerigde)
detached constructions: She was lovely: all of her - delightful. (Dreiser)
parallel constructions:
The seeds ye sow - another reaps, The robes ye weave - another wears The arms ye forge - another bears.
repetition: For glances beget ogles, ogles sighs, sighs wishes, wishes words, and words a letter. (Byron)
enumeration: The principle production of these towns... appear to be soldiers, sailors, Jews, chalk, shrimps, officers, and dock-yard men. (Dickens)
suspense: Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle... Know ye the land of the cedar and vine... 'Tis the clime of the East - 'tis the land of the Sun.
climax: They looked at hundred of houses, they climbed thousands of stairs, they inspected innumerable kitchens. (Maugham)
antithesis: Youth is lovely, age is lonely; Youth is fiery, age is frost. (Longfellow)
Question in the narrative: Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? (Dickens)
Represented speech (uttered and unuttered or inner represented speech):
Litotes: He was no gentle lamb (London); Mr. Bardell was no deceiver. (Dickens)
To Y. M. Skrebnev belongs one of the latest classifications of expressive means and stylistic devices. It is given in his book «Fundamentals of English Stylistics» published in 1994.
Prf. Skrebnev еxamines the 5 levels of the language (phonetics, morphology, lexicology, syntax and semasiology (or semantics)) and regards all stylistically relevant phenomena to both paradigmatic and syntagmatic Stylistics.
According to Skrebnev the relationship between five levels and two aspects of stylistic analysis is bilateral – Paradigmatic Stylistics (Stylistics of units) is subdivided into 5 branches:
1.Paradigmatic phonetics describes phonographical stylistic features of a written text. Graphical means reproduce the phonetic peculiarities of speech, intentional non-standard spelling are called «graphons» (a term suggested by V. A. Kucharenko). E. g.: I know these Eye-talians! (to show despise, contempt).
Other graphic means are:
a. italics;
b. capitalization: I AM sorry,
c. repetition of letters: Appeeee Noooooyeeeerr!;
d. onomatopoeia: cock-a-doodle-doo.
2. Paradigmatic morphology studies the stylistic potentials of grammar forms, which Leech would describe as deviant. Skrebnev chooses a number of grammatical categories for stylistic purposes.
– the use of a presnt tense of a verb on the background of a past tense narration (historical present);
– gender;
– countries are classified as «she»;
– death, fear, war, anger – «he»;
– spring, peace, kindness – «she»;
– ship, boat, carriage, coach, car – «she»;
– the use of animate nouns as inanimate ones (depersonification): «it» instead of «him, her».
3. Paradigmatic lexicology subdivides English vocabulary into, neutral, positive (elevated) and negative (degraded) layers.
4. Paradigmatic syntax has to do with the sentence paradigm.
5. Paradigmatic semasiology deals with tropes.
These expressive means possess the ability to rename. So, tropes are called figures of replacement, which arc subdivided into 2 groups:
I. Figures of quantify.Renaming is based on overestimating, intensifying the properties or underestimating the size, value, importance, etc. of the object or phenomenon:
– hyperbole;
– meosis (litotes): It's no unusual for me to get up early.
II. Figures of qualitycomprise 3 types of renaming:
1) transfer based on a real connection between the object of nomination and the object whose name isn't given:
– metonymy (synecdoche, periphrasis); E.g.: I'm all ears; Hands wanted.
– periphrasis (euphemism, anti-euphemism); E.g.: Ladies and the worser halves. I never call a spade a spade, I call it a bloody shovel.
2) transfer based on affinity (similiarity):
metaphor – according to Skrebnev – is an expressive renaming on the basis of similarity of two objects. It is not a purely lexical stylistic device, because has no formal limitations. It can involve a word, a part of sentence or a whole sentence.
Varieties of a metaphor:
– simple;
– sustained (extended);
– catachresis (or mixed metaphor);
– allusion – reference to a famous character or event, commonly known;
– personification – attributing human properties to lifeless objects;
– antonomasia – a variety of allusion; E.g.: Brutus (traitor), Don Juan (lady's man)
– allegory – expresses abstract ideas through concrete pictures. E.g.: the scale of justice;
3) transfer by contrast: two objects are opposed and this implies irony.
Irony is a device based on the opposition of meaning to the sense (dictionary and contextual). A semantic shift between the notion named and the notion meant is observed. Skrebnev distinguishes two kinds of ironic utterances: obviously explicit ironical utterance, like in O. Wilde's tale «The Devoted Friend». In the tale praise stands for blame to achieve ironic effect you should mix the registers of speech: high-flown style on socially low topics or vice versa.
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