The Course of Stylistics

(The reader for the seminars)

by Manana Rusieshvili, Rusudan Dolidze and Sopio Totibadze

Tbilisi
2020

CONTENTS

1
Chapter 1 Stylistics, language and style 3
Chapter 2 Functional styles of a language (general characteristics) 23
Chapter 3 The functional style of the newpaper 46
Chapter 4 Stylistic devices and expressive means 61
Chapter 5 Semantic and Syntactical Stylistic Devices and Expressive Means 74
Chapter 6 Contemporary Theories of Metaphor 89
Chapter 7 Decoding Stylistics and its Fundamental Concepts 101
SELF ASSESSMENT TEST 1 119
Chapter 8 Grammar and Stylistics 115
Chapter 9 Stylistics and Narratology 132
Chapter 10 Stylistics and discourse 152
Chapter 11 Ekphrasis in Stylistics 163
Chapter 12 Intertextuality and multimodality in Stylistics 175
Chapter 13 Levels of language at work: an example from the drama and poetry; 187
Future of Stylistics
SELF ASSESSMENT TEST 2
REFERENCES

CHAPTER 1
Stylistics, language and style

The style has been an object of study since the times immemorial. As early as at
dawn of our civilization Ancient Greek and Roman philosophers (Aristotle, Cicero and
Quintilian) treated style as a “proper adornment of thought” ( Aristotle.). The origin of the
terms “style” and “stylistics” goes back to Latin “stylus” which meant a stick for writing.

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However, the term stylistics comes from French “Stylistique” - an instrument for writing.
Modern stylistics is eclectic in its use of theory, though it originated in literary theories of
formalism and took on the theory of structuralism as developed by Saussure in the early 20th
century (Jeffries and McIntyre, 2010). As a starting point, stylistics dealt with identifying the
precise techniques of construction of stylistic means on which certain stylistic effects were
based. However, later, in due time, stylistics shifted the focus and responded to the
developing new theories about language (Semantics, Pragmatics, (Critical) Discourse
Analysis) by bringing the context of the utterance into play, together with cognitive factors
of encoding and decoding (i. e. cognitive linguistics and stylistics).
Stylistics in Russia was developed in the formalist school of literary criticism that
emerged in the early years of the 20th century and started by Roman Jacobson, Victor
Shklosvki and Boris Tomashevski. The school aimed at singling out the properties of literary
texts and also, to explore how the concept of defamiliarisation in art and literature defined
the artistic value of the work. It is also well-known that Russian linguistic school
contributed to the development of stylistics, introducing several interesting and elegant
theories which discuss general issues of stylistics and style.
Stylistics is currently considered a branch of applied linguistics concerned with the
study of style in texts, especially, but not exclusively, in literary works. Also called literary
linguistics, stylistics focuses on the figures, tropes, and other rhetorical devices used to
provide variety, originality of expression and a distinctness to someone's writing. Therefore,
it can be argued that stylistics combines linguistic analysis and literary criticism.
(https://www.thoughtco.com/stylistics-language-studies-1692000)
The goal of stylistics is to explore functional significance of texts for the process of
interpretation. (http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00437956.1970.11435581).
However, it can also be argued that despite the history of this branch of linguistics,
the subject of stylistics has not been yet definitely outlined or identified. This can be
explained due to a number of reasons. First of all, there is a certain confusion regarding the
use of the terms style and stylistics as well as their interrelationship. It is also claimed that
the concept of style is so broad that it is hardly possible to consider it as a specifically
linguistic term. Indeed, besides style in linguistics, we can discuss the style in architecture,
literature, behaviour, fashion and, generally, all fields of human activity. (Verndok, p. 3-5;
Znamenskaya, 7).
The subject of our current interest is style in linguistics although here the word
style is also used in many different contexts which also breeds misunderstanding and,
therefore, raises the need of its manyfold interpretation. For instance, in a number of

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cases, stylistics has been defined as a sub-discipline of linguistics that is concerned with the
systematic analysis of style in language and how this can vary according to such factors as
genre, context, historical period and author ( Crystal & Davy 1969:54; Leech 2008 : 54).
Doubtlessly this comprehensive definition includes all the major developments in linguistics.
However, besides embracing basic and general features, stlylistics recoginses an individual
author style that distinguishes one writer from another (for instance, Gamsakhrdia's style
versus Dochanashvili's style), the style which is associated with paticular genres in linguistics
(newspaper style, or the gothic novel style), or the characteristics of what may consitute
literary style versus colloquial style. In this respect, analysing the style means systematic
analysis of the formal features of a text and determining their functional significance for the
interpretation of the text in question ( Wales, 1989:438).
Having synthesised most of the relevant fundamental approaches to
stylistics(Verndok, Galperin, Skrebnev, Wales…) we can single out several points which are
actively discussed in fundamental literature about the style when delving deeper into the
issue:
1. Style was originally connected with the realization of the the aesthetic function of the
language which is an inherent part of works of art, poetry as well as imaginative narrative.
This function is mostly made up by s tylistic devices. However, no text or speech consists
entirely of a system of stylistic devices and therefore, the style of any form of arts ( including
literature) is formed by the combination of typical features which belong to some
functional style and demonstrate certain stylistic features, either unique to it, or also
shared by other functional styles.
2. Style is largely realised in expressive means of the language which are mostly employed
in texts that aim to affect the reader or listener, for instance, poetry, fiction, oratory, and
informal intercourse but rarely in technical texts or business language.
However, the major disadvantage of these approaches to style is that both (1) and (2) leave
the works of science, diplomatic or commercial correspondence, technical instructions and
many other types of texts beyond the scope of stylistics, although they also have their own
specific styles. Currently, the scope of the text types is widened and stylistics is believed to
analyse all types of texts. This, of course, can be considered a progressive development.
3. Style is associated with the synonymous ways of rendering of one and the same idea.
Although it was believed that “Style involves the choice of form without a change of
message.”(Bolinger: 2012), it should be argued that , from the contemporary standpoint,
with the change of wording , a change in the pragmatic meaning (however slight or
noticeable it might be) also inevitably takes place. On the other hand, the individual

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manner of expression of an author in his use of the language ( individual style) was closely
connected with other, synonymous ways of expression at an earlier stage of the development
of stylistics. For instance, as early as 1970 Ohmann wrote that the idea of style implies that
words on a page might have been different, or differently arranged, without a correspoinding
difference in meaning. Another writer would have said it another way. (Ohmann, 1970). It
should also be remembered that due to the characteristics of style, the individual manner of
a writer can only appear if a number of elements typical of a certain functional style are
employed, combined and foregrounded in a specific manner against the background of
general elements which this functional style also includes . As well as this, the emotional
colouring of words and sentences creates a certain stylistic effect and may make a text a highly
lyrical piece or a satire with an entirely different stylistic value. However, it should also be
noted that not all the texts eligible for stylistic study are necessarily marked by this quality.
Specifically, scientific texts are less emotional and more objective although still good for
stylistic analysis.

4. Any language contains a number of sublanguages ( Skrebnev) or micro-languages

( Znamenskaya ) or varieties of language with their own specific features, their own styles.
Besides these functional styles there exist the so-called substyles of a speech such as slang,
barbarisms, vulgarisms, taboo and so on. In addition, sublanguages are closely connected
with (3) as one and the same idea can be expressed in a variety of ways, depending on the
context and communicative situation.
5. Interrelation between thought and language makes up an inseparable whole and,
consequently, when the form is changed a change in content also takes place. The author's
intention and the forms he/she may use to express it as well as the reader's interpretation
serves as the subject of a relatively modern branch of stylistics— decoding stylistics. This is
important because it denotes the growing interest in the role of the reader in interpreting
texts. As well as this, this century has witnessed a surge of interest in the cognitive aspects
of text comprehension ( Stockwell, 2002; Gavins and Steen, 2003).
The above-said can be summed up in the following way: stylistics can be defined as a
branch of modern linguistics devoted to the detailed analysis of linguistic choices made by
speakers and writers in the process of encoding literary and non-literary (con)texts and
their decoding by readers and listeners . It can be claimed that this definition includes most
prominent issues covered by stylistics and emphasises the fact that not only fiction but also
scientific texts may give the stylisticians things to think about. In addition, as a branch of
modern linguistics, stylistics does not deal with a particular aspect of language, but
investigates the units of all levels of the English language system (sounds, words, their forms,

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word-combinations, clauses and sentences), i.e. it deals with the entire structure of the
language.
The predominance of literary texts as the focus of study within stylistics is reflected in
some of the alternative names that stylistics sometimes is referred to. These include literary
stylistics, criticl linguistics, literary semantics, literary pragmatics and poetics . All these
terms (and corresponding branches of linguistics behind them) have one major goal and
that is to find a term for the full range of activities practised by modern stylisticians, as well
as the attempt to acknowledge that stylistics job is not simply to identify formal features of
style in language ( Jeffries & McIntyre) .
Stylisticians often tend to express their preference for the analysis of literature
which leads to a number of names for particular approaches to stylistics. These include
literary stylistics and linguistic stylistics. Although the scope and function of these branches
may overlap, it is necessary to single out their domains. Specifically, it is claimed that
literary stylistics studies texts from the point of view of literary movement, social situation
and the author, whereas linguistic stylistics is focused on the language of the author, which,
by all means, includes his/her individual style as well. On the other hand, sometimes the
distinction is made between literary and non-literary stylistics, and this disctinction refers to
the kind of texts studied. (Jeffries and McIntyre, 2010) Hence, literary stylistics in this
sense is concerned with the analysis of literature whereas non-literary stylistics is
concerened with non-literary texts. Thus, while comparing the objects of these different
branches of stylistics, it becomes obvious that in the case of the opposition literary vs
linguistic stylistics, the distinction is not made between the kinds of texts studied ( literary
versus non-literary) but between the objectives implied by such analysis. Regarding this
distinction, literary stylistics is concernced with using linguistic techniques to assist in the
interpretation of texts, whereas linguistic stylistics performs certain stylistic analysis to test
or refine a linguistic model (Wales, 1989: 438-439).
Another prominent representative of the Russian school of stylistics, Galperin
maintains that the main issues stylistics should deal with are as follows: the analysis of the
inventory of the special media enabling and leading to a desirable effect in speech
utterances and the types of texts in language from the pragmatic point of view of
communication. The former are called expressive means (EM) and stylistic devices (SD); the
latter- functional styles of language (FS). (Galperin,1987). On the other hand, Arnold argues
that "stylistics studies the principles and results of the choice and usage of lexical,
grammatical, phonetic and other language means with the aim of transmitting of ideas and
emotions in different communication settings." (Arnold, 1987).

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 According to structuralists, no national language is a homogeneous whole, because
many of its constituents are not employed in every sphere of communication, but belong to
more or less strictly defined and delimited special spheres and therefore to specific types of
speech. Interestingly, Skrebnev uses the term ‘sublanguage’ to describe each specific type of
language (for instance, bookish, colloquial, neutral, etc.)
Stylistics enables to express the same meaning in a number of ways. The sentences
below illustrate how the same meaning can be expressed differently:
1) My neighbour, an old man who lived in the same block of flats, has died this
week.
2) The gentleman, residing close to my house, well advanced in years has attained
the termination of his terrestrial existence this week.
3) One of my neighbours, the ole bean has kicked the bucket one of these days.

The style of the above-mentioned sentences may be rendered in Georgian in the following
way:
1) გვერდით სადარბაზოში მოხუცი გარდაიცვალა ამ კვირაში.
2) ხანდაზმულმა ბატონმა, რომელიც ახლო ცხოვრობდა, დაასრულა ხორციელი
არსებობა ამ სამყაროში ან ხანდაზმული ბატონი, რომელიც ჩემთან ახლოს
ცხოვრობდა, სულეთის სამყაროში გადასახლდა.
3) ჩემმა მეზობელმა ბებერმა ყალიონი მიაყუდა/ფეხები გაჭიმა.

Comparing the linguistic units one notes that their stylistic value and the way of expression
differ and the examples illustrate the opinion which was expressed above : “Style involves
the choice of form without a change of message.” (Bolinger:1997 ). However, together with
the change of wording, the register and communicative value of the message also change
and can vary depending on the formality of the context.
Therefore, from the above-said it is obvious that as the basic terms of stylistics are directly
related to the notion of style, it is important to determine the essence of style and how it is
viewed in modern linguistics.
As was mentioned above, as a linguistic term style is defined differently by different
stylistic schools. Specificallly, in Western linguistic traditions style is predominantly viewed
as a ‘way’ or ‘manner’ of using language by particular individuals, as a combination of
distinctive features of literary expression characterizing a particular person, inasmuch as no

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two people can write or speak identically. As was put by Sir Thomas Browne, an English
writer of the 16th century, “stylus arguit hominem” (“style maketh the man”).
The disparity in approaches to style in different linguistic schools is going to be a matter
of discussion later in this course. However, at this point it is essential to distinguish two
notions that according to Galperin, are related but not identical: individual style as an
individual way of writing or speaking practiced by a person and functional language style as a
system objectively existing in language for particular communicative purposes. Consequently,
an individual style is usually analysed based on the criteria providied by the functional style.
Moreover, The term functional style refers to the sphere of language itself and is
based on the assumption that language is not a homogeneous system, but a combination of
several relatively complete and interwoven systems (Galperin, 1987). These minor and
relatively self-sufficient systems of language, also referred to by some linguists (Y.M.
Skrebnev, V.L. Nayer, etc.) as subsystems, are what we call functional styles of language
inasmuch as the main criterion for their differentiation is their communicative function (i.e.
purpose of communication).
Conversely, the term individual style has more to do with how language is used by an
individual speaker or writer rather than with how it functions in particular spheres of
communication. Thus, an individual style is defined as a unique combination of language
units, expressive means and stylistic devices characteristic of a given writer and making this
writer's works or even utterances easily recognizable (Galperin, 1977).
Due to the fact that the individual style is based on the vast stock of language
elements selected by the author individually, there arises an issue of norm as a system and a
benchmark to which facts are compared to . Owingto this, the notion of norm is mainly
connected with the literary language and always presupposes a recognized or received
standard of expression.
There are different norms for various types and styles of language which leads to the
definition of an abstract notion of norm as an invariant, which should embrace all variants
with their most typical properties. (Galperin, 1987).
By the same token, the literary norm of language is understood as the invariant of
phonemic, morphological, lexical and syntactical patterns used in language-in-action at a
given period of time. (Znamenskaya, 2010) Although the variants of these patterns may
sometimes differ from the invariants uniting them, they never exceed the limits set by the
invariant or detach themselves from it to such a degree as to claim entire independence. If
this happens, the variants become unrecognizable or misleading. Interestingly, in all
spheres of linguistic communication there is a tendency to diverge from the linguistic

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norm and create an individual style: the farther the text is from the norm the more it
is considered to be different and interesting.
The literary norm paves the way to another important notion in stylistics, that of the
literary (standard) language, which was thouroghly defined in a fundamental course of
English Lexicology (Ginzburgh, 1997). Specifically, Ginzburg argues that the literary
language is an elaborated form (variety) of the national language “which obeys definite
morphological, phonemic, syntactical, lexical, phraseological and stylistic norms recognized
as standard and therefore acceptable in all types and kinds of discourse” (Ginzburg, et al.,
1979).
Another term with which the term literary language should not be confused with is
the term language of literature. Literary language is a historical category which exists as a
variety of the national language, whereas the language of literature is a variation of the
literary language, which circulates in a particular sphere of linguistic communication, such as
literature.
The terms standard literary and informal non-literary language are more difficult to
differentiate. Interestingly, although these two terms set up a direct binary opposition, they
still strongly depend on each other. A literary language is a register or dialect of a language
that is used in literary writing of the language. Very often a literary language is based on the
dialect spoken in and around the capital city of the country. Literary language is frequently
employed as a synonym of a standard language. The latter denotes the layer of the language
which may be used in all the instances of written or spoken situation. On the other hand,
informal, non-literary language (speech and writing) is considered to be a casual, familiar
and colloquial language. Contrary to the formal style, which is characterized by strict rules,
informal non-literary language is less strictly grammatical and is based on short, simple
sentences and common, familiar lexis. Informal style may include elliptical sentences,
abbraviations, even colloquialisms and slang. However, this simplicity “does not inevitably
mean simpler ideas or simpler conceptualizing" (Carolyne Lee, Word Bytes: Writing in the
Information Society, 2009).

Varieties of language
One of the basic classifications of literary language is based on the spheres of the
mode of expression, which divides it into two varieties: spoken and written.
Historically and diachronically the spoken variety of a language is primary and the
written one is secondary. As well as this, other principal differences between these two
varieties are:

9
1. Presence of a binary opposition speaker versus interlocutor in the spoken variety of the
language and of the opposition author versus reader in the written one;
2. The spoken language is mostly maintained in the form of a dialogue whereas the written
language largely involves a monologue;
3. The spoken language has a great advantage over the written language in that in it the
human voice comes into play, together with a great variety of paralinguistic means of
expression. On the other hand, the written language has to find means to compensate for
this lack and become more explicit.
It should be mentioned that in the long process of language functioning the
distinctions between these two varieties have become less evident. Nevertheless the gap
between the spoken and written varieties will always remain due to the differences in
circumstances in which the two are used.
There is a difference between language and speech, or, in other words, language-as-a-
system and language-in-use which should be clarified. Despite looking drastically different,
these two systems are very closely connected and interdependent. More specifically,
language (grammatical, phonetic, lexicological, and stylistic) rules and patterns of language
as well as valid linguistic models first emerge in language-in-action (i.e. speech) and,
afterwards accepted by the society and generalized, they become rules and patterns of
language-as-a-system.
Another essential notion in stylistics is that of the sign. The widely recognized
definition of this term is the following: " A sign is a material, sensuously perceived object
(phenomenon, action) appearing in the process of cognition and communication in the
capacity of a representative (substitute) of another object (or objects) and used for receiving,
storing, recasting and transforming information about this object ." (Lotman, 2005).
Accordingly, the science which deals with the general theory of signs is called Semiotics.
Signs are generally used in a definite system showing the interrelation and
interdependence of the components of the system. Such systems of signs are called codes.
Thus, we speak of a language code which consists of different signs – lexical, morphological,
phonemic, syntactical, and stylistic. Every code is easily understood by its users. It should be
noted that there are various kinds of codes which usually overlap, and while analyzing any
text or discourse several codes and the relationships between them are considered.
Range of texts subject to stylistic analysis
As it was mentioned above, there is litte restriction on the kinds of text that may be
subjected to stylistic analysis. However, some historical and practical reasons reveal the
reasons .why there has been more emphasis on the literary aspects of style as well as on the

10
written language in preference to the spoken language. Development of recording tecniques
which has made the transcription of spoken texts more accessible resulted in broadening the
scope of texts stylistics concerns itself with. Recently, there have emerged recent examples
of stylisticicans turning their hand to look at the language of spoken conversation (McIntyre
et al. 2004), advertisements (Short and Wen Zhong, 1997, Jeffries, 2007; Jojua, 2014), humour
(Simpson, 2004; Rusieshvili and Giorgadze, 2014) and film ( Sompson and Montgommry,
1995). The latter development in the direction of multimodality is not restricted to stylistics
but is also reflected in the move from literary theory to cultural theory and the increasng
interest that all such communicators are taking in not only linguistic, but also, visual
communication of all kinds ( Rusieshvili and Dolidze, 2011, 2012, 2014: Rusieshvli-Cartledge
and Dolidze 2015). Nowadays, stylidtics deals with all the types of texts given through oral,
written and recorded channels.
Range of Theories
It should be emphasised that stylistics is eclectic in its use of theory. However, as
mentioned above, stylistics originated in literary theories of formalism and took on the
theory of structuralism as developed by Saussure in the early 20 th century. Therefore, the
focus on the language of the text initiated and followed by these theories is still actively
present nowadays demonstrating that stylistics did not originate from an author-based view
of textual meaning in the same way that, for example, some areas of literary studies did.
Stylistics developed rapidly with the theory by Ferdinand de Saussure formulated in
his Cours de Linguistique Générale. Saussure discussed a set of opposed categories.
Specifically, ‘signified’ and ‘signifier’ which make up a semiotic sign; ‘diachronic’ and
‘synchronic’ approaches to language, which defined two major axis of the language
development and ‘syntagmatic’ and ‘paradigmatic’ relations which defined the linear
arrangement as well as paradigms of language items and finally, ‘ langue’ and ‘parole’ systems
of language which includes the opposition of speech versus language. These categories are
still very important and therefore, they are of great use in stylistic analysis: more
specifically- style pertains to parole, the property of “selection from a total linguistic
repertoire” (Leech and Short 1981: 11), it is the linguistic characteristics that a text exposes.
Later, with the course of time, stylistics also responded to the developing of new
theories of language paying more attention to contextual factors (pragmatics and discourse
analysis) and on cognitive factors (cognitive linguistics and generative grammar). Currently,
one of the most popular branches of stylistics is to explore how readers/interlocutors decode
and respond to linguistic style. On the other hand, stylisticians also work in Critical
Discourse Analysis (Fowler, 2003; Mullany, 2004) with theories of social exploitation and

11
manipulation at the heart of their approach. Some linguists work with computational and
statistical theories (Culpeper, 2004) and draw literary and linguistic conclusions from the
computer analysis of large quantities of data.

Range of methods
Based on the eclectics of the theories, not surprisingly stylistics is also eclectic in its
methodologies. However, the most importamt methodological distinction in all research is
the difference between qualitative and quantitative methods. Although, traditionally, most
stylistics has been qualitative , in recent years, with the development of easliy accessible and
powerful computer software, there has been a renewed interest in quantitative study in
stylisic research, and there is even a developing subdiscipline increasingly referred to as
corpus linguistics. (Lesley Jeffries, Daniel McIntyre, 2010).
Quantitative studies usually involve the statistical analysis of elements from large
quantities of data, in order to test the significance of numerical findings. For instance, one
might compare the incidence of high-frequency function words (such as pronouns and
determiners) by different characters in Jane Austen's novels and thus discover that Austen's
characters have their own unique ''fingerprints'' (Burrows, 1987). Once statistical differences
are found, the literary and stylistic questions of what these differences mean can be easily
discussed and answered.
However, the question of what constitutes qualitative study is not as easy to define
due to the plurality of approaches and theories. For example,the analysis of a certain poem
may be qualitative, particularly if the poem is short. Despite the fact that this type of
analysis usually focuses only on one specific poem, it may still outline potentially
interesting directions for future studies.
The use of qualitative research makes it possible to take contextual factors into
account, and this means use of a number of tools and methodologies for research. Let us take
the reporting of the so-called "war on terror" which has been a regular feature after
11.09.2001 as an example. Due to the extensive coverage, it would be easy to choose, for
example, a few texts, either reflecting different attitudes to the attack or concentrating on a
single incident, and scrutinise them in detail, tools of analysis employed when exploring the
issue may not be amenable to automatic searching. The result of this analysis would reveal
certain insights into the texts themselves and, depending on how they were selected
(random or structured analysis), they may also have implications for data beyond the data
analysed, which could be tested by others or at a future time.

Aims of Stylistic analysis

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 The aims of stylisic analysis are also varied due to the reasons mentioned above ( in 1.
3-5) and reflect the rich range of approaches taken to all sorts of text-types and genres.
This means that it is not easy to narrow down regarding the aims of all stylistic analysis.
However, in order for the reader to grasp the differences between two approaches bottom-
up versus top-down should be singled out, which is in close contact with the distinction
between quantitative and qualitative research. There is an obvious tendency for quantitative
research to align with inductive ( bottom-up) approach whereas qualitative approach tends to
align with deductive ( top-down) approach. However, it is a wide-spread idea that the
inductive ( bottom-up) method suits stylistics very well. (Lesley Jeffries, Daniel McIntyre,
2010) In addition, for a stylistician, individual examples of various features (such as a
particular metaphor or a symbolic use of a certain grammatical structure) may constitute all
the results needed to fulfil the research aim of her/his project. This will certainly require a
close analysis of the passages concerned, followed by an interpretation of the technical and
statistical features that emerge during the analysis.
On the other hand, to take a different scale of example, a stylistician may also
employ a different approach. For instance, depending on the precise research questions,
they may want to consider the whole output of a certain author, or a section of it with some
structured research plan definite in mind. The research question for this type of research
would be to find out based on the data what patterns or features of language make the
language distinctive or interesing for the reader. This approach could also involve a
computer-based search for certain lexical or grammatical features, informant-testing for
reader reactions based on questionniaires , or a qualitative, close and thorough analysis of
selected passasages. The approaches analysed above would be based on the inductive
approach. In other words, such an approach is based on the empiric data and the results of
the research will be generelised to fit in an existing theory or, on the other hand, a new
theory will be made up relying on the research results.
On the other hand, there are approaches to stylistics which can be classed as
deductive, theory-driven ( top-down). This could involve asking questions about the nature
of textual meaning, probably including the questions about the process of reading, and the
reader's role in negotiating textual meaning and decoding of the message. The part that
textual data play in this kind of project is secondary, and serve the general aim of
establishing the theoretical view of how language works. For example, a stylistician may be
intereseted how a metaphor is encoded (from the writer’s or speaker’s position) and decoded
(from the reader’s or listerner’s position) and thus, decide to do some informant-testing,
largely, by means of questionnaires or interviews or employing both of these methods. The

13
aim of such research is to find out more about how language works in general, although it
does not exclude occurrence of some outcomes which would shed light on the workings of
particular metaphors.
What is important to note here is that stylistic research may not be confined only
either to the data-driven or theory- driven research. Though many studies will still use one
of these positions as their starting point, it is very often the case that both directions are
included into one research. What should be taken in consideration is that stylistics is
fundamentally attached to the data in a specific way. The central concern of stylistics is with
the style of particular texts, whether they are representative of a genre, an author, or
themselves alone. It is absolutely necessary not to ignore the context in which they are
produced and received as this effects their overall meaning in a number of stylistic ways.
However, the idespensary invariant for all stylistic research remains the text itself and the
linguistic choices that have been made by the producers ( albeit unconsciously ) to arrive at
a particular form and arrangement of words.
As it was mentioned above, the data explored and analysed by stylisticians may
include all types of literary as well as non-literary texts. For instance, cognitive metaphor
theory that will be dicussed later, in Chapter 6, has shown that metaphor is present in all
discourse types since metaphor is one of the primary ways in which we conceptualise our
experience of the world around us. (Lakoff and Johnsosn, 1980) For instance, the coneptual
metaphor LIFE IS A JOURNEY is a structuring device that inderlies our experience of daily
life and the way in which we talk about these. Common phrases that make use of this
conceptual metaphor include " I feel like I am going nowhere"', "'I am at crossroads of my
time"', ''I do not know which path to take"'. Such metaphors are universal and are thus
found in other languages as well: ცხოვრების გზა; არ ვიცი, რა გზას დავადგე; ეს გზა
ტაძართან არ მიგვიყვანს; ცხოვრების გზაჯვარედინს მიუახლოვდა. All these examples
prove that this metaphor widely functions in Georgian as well as in English. Thus, the
underlying conceptual metaphor can be found in many different kinds of texts and spoken
languages, and is clearly not restricted to literary texts.
It should be mentioned that stylistic analysis of non-literary texts may be based on
the tools employed in the case of literary texts, but will be concerned with a different set of
questions in terms of the effect or interpretation of the texts themselves. (Lesley Jeffries,
Daniel McIntyre – 2010). Once again, from this point of view, critical discourse analysis and
other stylistic approaches in a similar vein may be ultimately based on revealing persuasive
or manipulative effects of advertisements, newspaper reports or political speeches, unlike the
literary stylistic analysis which may be concerned with exploration of the literary value or

14
an interpretative effect of a literary work. However, this will not prevent these two
approaches from using similar basic tools of analysis.
As for the mode or the communication channel via which texts can be transferred,
these may be the written language, or a transcribed version of the spoken language, so that
the same kinds of issues (lexis, grammar, etc) are normally subjected to vigorous analysis
more often than, for example, intonation or other speech phenomena. However, the usage of
recorded texts are also acceptable for the styilistic analysis.

Authorial (Individual) versus genre style

We have already mentioned the opposition individual style vs genre style. Now we would
like to expand on the issue further and concentrate on the kinds of different style which
could be the focus of a stylistic study. Clearly, a stylistician can get interested in the style of
a single type of a text (advertisement, letter, poem. novel, play) or may wish to look at a
particular phase in an author's output ( poetry collection or groups of fictional works by date
or in a chronological order). In addition, broadening out, we may wish to consider the
whole output of an author, other works of the groups of writers who have some common
theme or other connection, for example, absurdist writers, Romatic poets or writers of
instruction manuals. In all cases, we may wish to analyse a set of data and look for the
patterns of similarity, but we may also wish to constrcuct a data set with inbuilt contrasts, to
compare and contrast the sub-sets with each other.
Beyond the individual writer and groups of writers, we may wish to consider the analysis of
a whole genre, such as contemporary poetry in general or the style of Acts of Parliament, or
that of legal acts or other authentic ESP texts. What we should remember is that we should
look at relatively limited and homogenous sets of data. The only exception may be a larger
amount of data in corpus linguistics.
In addition to the genre and text-type approach to data selection, one may also have a
different kind of focus, relating more to the topic of the texts than their genre. Thus, we may
ask the question of what, if any, stylistic tendencies there are in texts on the internet relating
to christianity, or we may ask the question of what, if any, stylistic tendencies there are in
texts on the internet relating to Christianity, or we may ask how a current political issue is
treated across a range of text-types, including new reporting and political speeches.
Finally, the focus of a stylistic study may be more complicated theoretical than any that we
have mentioned so far. For instance, the question of how widespread the use of metaphors is
in literary and other works and whether these metaphors can be categorised in certain ways
irrespective of their context. In practice stylistic studies may well provide evidence for a

15
general theory at the same time as focusing on a topic or theme, and limiting the data to a
particular genre or other set of texts.

The Structure of Stylistics

As was mentioned above, stylistics can not exist without interacting with other branches and
disciplines of linguistics and therefore, is connected with such disciplines as phonetics,
morphology, lexicology, and syntax. A student of linguistics would never experience
difficulty distinguishing, for instance, lexicology from phonetics or grammar. This is
explained by the fact that all the above mentioned branches of lingsuitics are “level”
disciplines, i.e. describing and analysing one distinct linguistic level each. French linguist E.
Benveniste first used the word ‘level’ to characterize the hierarchical structure of the
language . This theory is based on the assumtion that language is not a disorganised mass of
sounds, signs and symbols, but it forms an organised system, a hierarchy, elements of
which combine to construct the elements of the next level up and therefore, each higher
level relies on the lower level(s). As well as this, each level uses its own element as “the
building blocks of a language”(Ballard 2006:15; The frameworks of English, London
Colgrave, 2006). In other words, it is commonly accepted that a human language presents a
hierarchy of levels, from the lowest up to the highest and each level has its own unit to use.
On the one hand, it can be claimed that each of the levels functions independently. On the
other hand, the levels are interdependent and intertwined. Because of this, the levels of the
language are able to represent multiple and simultaneous linguistic operations when
construcing and producing an utterance. In order to construct a sentence, a complex
relationship between the layers of the language is necessary. Currently, the modified
hierarchy of levels includes the following structure: Phonology ( Elementary sounds,
phonemes); Morphology (Elementary letter/sound combinations; morphemes); Lexical
(Individual words); Syntax (Word combinations); Semantics (Meaning), Pragmatics:
(Contextual constraints on language and discourse).
Specifically, at the level of phonetics, the main unit is a phonemes, which differentiates
meanings, although does not have its own meaning. Phonemes organise themselves in
morphemes, which express the lexical and grammatical meanings and operate with affixes
and suffixes. Next, morphemes build up words, which are arranged linearly in a sentence
according to the syntactic rules practised by the language. The meaning of the sentence is
made up by combining the meanings of each individual word of the sentcence. However, if a
sentence contains a set-phrase, idiom, proverb or a trope, this rule does not work and the
sentence acquires an idiomatic meaning.

16
Pragmatics is critical to determining the word choices we make while communicating as
well as our interpretation of language in different contexts and settings. Finally, discourse
level envelopes the whole hierarchy of the language described above.
It should also be taken into consideration that in order to convey meaning and build up
successful communicative acts, all the layers of the language must combine. Each language
level is described by a ‘level discipline’: phonetics, morphology, lexicology, syntax. Of course,
stylistics does not fit in here. This is because, interestingly, stylistics is not a level discipline
but it pertains to each and every level. From this point of view, stylistics is broader and
more voluminous. Due to this, it is subdivided into separate, quite independent branches,
treating one level of the language each. These branches are: stylistic phonetics, stylistic
morphology, stylistic lexicology, stylistic syntax.
Stylistic phonetics pays attention to a style-forming phonetic features, it describes variants of
pronunciation occurring in different types, accents and varieties of speech. In addition,
special attention is paid to prosodic features of prose and poetry which include rhyme
elements, patterns of stresses, rhyming schemes. On the other hand, phonetic stylistic
devices and expressive means are also subject to analysis at this level. These include:
alliteration (i. e. the use of same letters or sounds); consonance (i.e. a half rhyme in which
final consonants are repeated but with different preceding vowels); assonance (i. e. the effect
created when two syllables in words that are close together include the same vowel sound
but different consonants or the same consonants but different vowels); onomatopoeia (i.e.
the effect produced when words used contain sounds similar to the noises they describe.
This scheme may serve as the basis for the analysis of a recorded text but the latter will also
reveal prosodic features of the reader (pitch of the voice, accent, rhythm patterns, tempo)
will also be analysed.
Stylistic morphology is interested in grammatical forms and grammatical meanings that are
typical of a particular sublanguage. Analysis on this level would include the effect achieved
by certain morphemes. For instance, such analysis will pay attention to modifications of a
word to express grammatical categories (such as, use of plural forms) and derivational means
(the way affixation is used) to achieve desired effects. Regarding stylistic morphological
analysis, points of interest may be (Skrebnev, 1967) synonymy and variability of use (or
inter changeability) of morphological categorical forms (i.e. component parts of the category)
or of members of the opposition that constitute the grammatical category such as tense,
person, number, etc. In both cases, there is always a choice from varieties existing
paradigmatically.

17
Clearly, stylistic lexicology is closely connected with lexicology, since there are many
overlapping aspects. More specifically, stylistic lexicology focusses on the potential of lexical
means to create stylistic devices and expressive means.
Stylistic syntax shows that particular constructions are typical of various types of speech and
that syntactical structures maybe style-forming.
Linguistic stylistics and literary stylistics are two separate and, at the same time,
interconnected branches of stylistics (Arnold1987: 11-15). Linguistic stylistics studies
functional styles of a language and the elements of language from the point of view of their
ability to express and evoke emotions, associations, etc.
As mentioned above, linguistic stylistics must be subdivided due to the fact that language
presents a hierarchy of levels, from the lowest up to the highest and each level is described
by what we call a "level discipline", namely stylistic phonetics, stylistic morphology, stylistic
syntax, stylistic lexicology.
Literary stylistics investigates expressive means and stylistic devices specific to a definite
work of art, writer, literary movement, trend or epoch, and factors influencing the
expressiveness of language. Literary stylistics is closely connected with poetics and theory of
literature. Poetics explores the structure of works of literature and the system of aesthetic
means used in them. This branch of stylistics studies the way language is used by a definite
person or a literary movement.
Although stylistics has already secured a place within linguistics it still arises considerable
criticism from the linguists who believe that currently stylistics is concerned with literature
more than linguistics. On the other hand, the approach preferred by the corpus linguistics
maintains that literary stylistics is most important for linguistic studies.
Jeffries and McIntan argue that literary texts are used as the data upon which stylistic
theories are developed, tested and applied. In the same way, spoken convesation tends to be
the data used by sociolinguists, the stylistic features and techinques may be applied to non-
literary texts as well. (Jeffries and Mclntyre, 2010)
One thing that is typical (and somewhat unique) of stylistics is that it employs theories and
relevant models from other fields of science rather than develop its own unique techiniques.
Because of this, it is often classed as a meeting place of many sub-disciplines of both,
linguistics and other disciplines, such as literary studies and psychology. Moreover, it is also
worth noting that stylistics is interested in the relationship between a writer and a text,
and a reader and a text, as well as in the wider contexts of production as well as reception
of texts.

18
Thus, as mentioned above, Stylistics also takes into account the concerns of context-bound
branches of linguistics, such as pragmatics and sociolinguistics although these latter two sub-
disciplines of linguistics have tended to be more interested in spoken than written languages
whereas stylistics has traditionally been concerned with written than spoken texts. In other
ways, it can be argued that besides the fields mentioned above, Stylistics also shares
boundaries with cognitive approaches to language and with corpus linguistics. As well as
this, it refers to similar issues as pragmatics and sociolinguistics.

Practice Section
1. Comment on the following:

1. Define the notions of style and sublanguages.

2. What are the interdisciplinary links of stylistics and other linguistic subjects such as
phonetics,
lexicology, grammar, and semasiology? What other disciplines of knowledge is
Stylistics connected with ? Provide examples. How does stylistics differ from other
disciplnes in its subject-matter and fields of study?
3. Comment on various definition of style and stylistics. Which of them do you find most
complete and acceptable? Why?
4. What is the difference between literary stylistics and linguistic stylistics? Between
Language –as-a system and language –in-use? Provide examples.
5. Why is the norm of the language important?
6. Speak about the hierarchy of a language. Why is the theory of language levels
important
to inderstand the structure of the language? Is it a static or a dynamic theory? Why?
7. What is the difference between qualitative and quantitative research? Bring specific
examples
8. It is maintained that Stylistics is eclectic. Do you agree with this approach? Why?
9. What is the difference between the top-down and bottom-up approaches to the data?
Which do you like more? Why?
10. What is the authorial style from the stylistic point of view? What is necessary to make
up the authorial style?

II Distinguish between neutral, formal and informal variants among the following groups of words.
Bring specific examples:

19
 1 currency money dough
2 to talk to converse to chat
3 to chew down to eat to dine
4 to start to commence to kick off
5 insane nuts mentally ill
6 spouse hubby husband
7 to leave to withdraw to shoot off
8 geezer senior citizen old man
9 veracious open sincere
10 mushy emotional sentimental

III. State whether the following statments are True or False:

1. Antient scholars treated style as only adorment of thought. T F
2. The term stylistics comes from one of the romance languages. T F
3. The subject of stylistics is well defined and does not need any further T F
discussion.
4. Style is a specifically linguistic term. T F
5. Stylistics can be focussed on the study of various ganres. T F
6. The aesthetic function of language is mostly created by stylistic devices. T F
7. The opinion that style involves the choice of form without a change of T F
message belongs to Bolinger.

8. Expressions of emotions make the text valuable from the point of view of T F
Stylistics
9. In order to study a text it should be loaded with EM and SD T F
10 Emotional colouring always makes the text positive T F
.
11 Sublanguages may be defined as micro-languages or varieties of languages T F
.

IV .Project ideas: ( ten minutes for the presentation )

1. The stages of the analysis of a literary text.

2. Analyse a short story from the point of view of stylistics and literary analysis.
3. Speak about E. Benveniste and his theory of language levels

20
 4. Speak about interdisciplinary nature of stylistics. ( Stylistics and linguistics, literary
criticism, cognitive sciences, pragmatics, sociolinguistics). How do they overlap? Define
the areas of overlap

5. Describe the range of methods used by Stylistics

VI Choose the correct option from a-d :
1. In many cases, stylistics has been defined as a ------------ of linguistics:
a. core-discipline; b. sub-discipline; c. major discipline; d. determining discipline

2. According to --------------, no national language is a homogeneous whole:

a. pragmatists; b. behaviorists; c. pluralists; d. structuralists

4. Who is the author of: “stylus arguit hominem” (“style maketh the man”):
a. Bollinger; b. Galperin; c. Sir Thomas Browne; d. Arnold

5. The literary norm makes basis for another important notion in stylistics which is ---------:
a. standard; b. literary; c. poetic d. linguistic

6. The smallest unit of language is ------------:

a. allophone b. phoneme c. morpheme d. homophone

7. ----------------- is closely connected with lexicology, since there are many overlapping aspects:
a. Stylistic phonetics; b. Stylistic phonetics; c. Stylistic syntax; d. Stylistic lexicology

8. -----------------, the spoken variety is primary and the written one is secondary:
a. Historically; b. Synchronically; c. Diachronically; d. Parallely

21
9. It should be emphasized that stylistics is ------------- in its use of theory:
a. eclectic; b. ecclesiastic; c. ephemeric; d. realistic

VII Open questions:

1. Why is it argued that Stylistics can be defined as a branch of modern linguistics?

2. What are the main issues Stylistics should deal with?
3. Why does the term functional style refer to the sphere of language itself?
4. Why does the problem of norm arise?
5. Why is it difficult to set the border between the standard literary and informal non-
literary language?
6. Why may Language-as-a-system figuratively be depicted as an exploiter of language-in-
use?
7. Why are the theories developed by Saussure in the early 20th century still important
now?
8. Why do the aims of stylistic analysis vary?

CHAPTER 2

FUNCTIONAL STYLES OF A LANGUAGE

Functional Stylistics

Functional stylistics is traditionally considered to be a prominent trend in stylistics. It

primarily deals with paradigms of language units which belong to all of the levels of the
language as a hierchical structure and accommodates the needs of a number of typical
communicative situations. Functional stylistics is based on the interrelationship between

22
norm and function of a language and their relation to style.
https://www.amazon.com/Investigating-English-Discourse-Language-
Literature/dp/0415140668
As it was already mentionend above (lecture 1), the notion of style is inherently connected
with the employment of the language under specific circumstances for a definite purpose.
The concept of using a language, for instance, involves more than only using our knowledge
of linguistic structures in certain communicative situations. In order to perform a successful
communicative act, the participants of the situation should be aware of a wide range of
specific contexts in which English can be used as a medium of communication. It is also
interesting to note that together with functional stylistics other branches of linguistics may
also explore similar issues. For instance, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, pragmatics,
discourse analysis and text linguistics employ an impressive range of methodologies while
exploring the issues connected with the language in use, or, in other words, the language in
communication.
In the first lecture we defined the central concept of Stylistics - style. As is known,
linguistic literature provides a number of definitions of the concept “style” which can be
narrowed down to several perceptions of this term. For instance:
• Style can be defined from a social perception as a variety of the language used in one of
the socially identifiable spheres, characterised by a specific linguistic features, such as
vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. According to this definition, style variations are
associated with social and regional varieties (educated, uneducated, dialectal, normative etc).
In addition, based on this perspective, these varieties can be classed as neutral, literary and
colloquial: For example, Cockney versus posh, educated English.
• Style can also be defined as a widely accepted linguistic determination of oral and written
units of discourse. From this point of view, there can be singled out various types of
discourse, such as a public speech, an informal /formal letter, a newspaper article, a
scholarly article, etc.
Finally, style can be defined as an individual manner of expression determined by social and
personal determiners of the speaker, such as a his/her educational background, profession,
disposition,sense of humour, etc.: Gamsakhurdia’s style.
Thus, style can be defined as the knowledge and employment of linguistic, sociolinguistic
and pragmatic of rules in the process of creating and interpreting texts and discourses as well
as communicative acts.
While producing a speech speakers or writers often make choice of words and expressions
they employ. What factors determine these choices?

23
According to the Role theory ( by Gofman), a person’s everyday activity is based on acting
out a role of socially defined categories (e.g., father, doctor, teacher). Each role involves and
presents set of rights, duties, expectations, norms and behaviors that a person has to face and
fulfil. From this point of view, we play several roles simultaneouely. For instance, one can be
a daughter, a mother, a professional, etc. Each of these situations involves diferent roles and
different linguistic choices. It can be claimed that participants of a certain communicative act
formulate their messages according to the communicative situation and targer speaker or
reader, depending on the way and medium of communicarion. As well as this, an effective
transmission of the message largely depends on making a right choice regarding the range of
language appropriate to the situation or a context. How the language may be used in a
number of situations characterised by a number of specific stylistic features is dealt with by
the theory of functional styles. Major terms employed by this theory are
norm and function and their interrelation with style.
http://www.upm.ro/ldmd/LDMD-01/Lds/Lds%2001%2050.pdf
The notion of 'correct language' presupposes conformity to the grammatical, lexical and
phonetic standards accepted in the society. The widely accepted variety of a language,
classed as literary variety is a version of the standard written language. This is the variety of
the language used in literature or in formal spoken language which most closely reflects the
featuers of the literary style. In addition, the correct usage of language forms is associated
with the notion of the linguistic norm.
A language is considered to be “structured along a set of rules, or ‘norms’, that prevail over
all aspects of the language: phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics.” (Bowerman 2006:
701 “ make the languag). From this point of view, norms e distinctive, intelligible within a
wide speech community, and learnable” (Bowerman 2006: 701). Another property of the
norm is that it is closely related to the system of the language as an abstract, ideal
phenomenon which provides and determines the general rules of usage of its elements and
the norm is the actual use of a language by individual speakers under specific conditions of
communication. (Т. A. Znamenskaya, Fundamentals of the course of Stylistics, 2004 )
Regarding the norm of the language, a significant difference is noticed between the spoken
and written language. Specifically, while in spoken language the linguistic norms are more
inconsistently norms are employed by native speakers, in written language norms are the
more rigid and much more easily identified. (LINGUISTIC NORM AND LANGUAGE
CONTACT: THE CASE OF THE HUNGARIAN LANGUAGE IN ROMANIA FAZAKAS
Noémi, Assistant Professor, PhD and BOTH Csaba Attila, ”Sapientia” University of Târgu-
Mureş,, 2009).

24
Most languages have individual, regional and social varieties. Due to this, the normative
variant “generally becomes attached to the general set of prevailing linguistic norms
associated with an influential or high-status group”, which is then often imposed on the
entire speech community (Bowerman 2006: 702).
Together with the dialectal usage, individual use of the language forms implies a personal
choice when selecting linguistic means on all levels of the language viewed as a system of
interconnected layers. However, in the cases when this use complies with the general rules
of the language, then it will follow the literary norm of the language. However, the literary
norm is not a homogeneous entity which means that, as mentioned above, it varies following
a number of factors, such as regional, social, situational, personal, etc. Some scholars
(McDavid, for instance) hold that " some usages are more appropriate than others, at least
socially". What determines the appropriateness of language is, most frequently, the speakers'
age, gender, education, sophistication, social position. Adopting a specific social role, such as
making a congratulatory speech or conducting a panel talk, invariably entails a choice of
appropriate linguistic forms. In every society there are different 'norms' when interacting
with elderly people and peers, teachers and students, delivering a lecture or testimony in
court. The contextual appropriateness of the norm is dictated by the social roles of the
participants of communication, their age and various relations with the speaker and depends
on the type of the commincative act ( see above, the theory of roles). This leads us to the
notion of the norm variation. An important role in the selection of the variety of the norm
belongs to the purpose of the utterance, or its function. For instance, informal language used
on a formal occasion will sound as inappropriate as formal language on an informal occasion.
Differences in the choice of linguistic forms which depend on the subject of discussion
and are in harmony with the specific audience, occasion and the goals or the medium of
communication are called registers. To put it simply, a register can be considered a unique
way a speaker uses language in different circumstances, from chatting at a fancy dinner party
to debating a topic in a classroom discussion. (Nordquist, 2006). Registers are marked by a
variety of specialized vocabulary and turns of phrases, colloquialisms and the use of jargon,
and a difference in intonation and pace (Yule, The study of language,1995 )
Language use may be arbitrarily divided into any number of sub-segments and the norm of
the language implies various realisations of the language structure that are sometimes called
its subsystems, registers or varieties. ( Znamenskaya, 2008)
The next term we are going to discuss, after the norm and function in their relation to style,
is that of is a functional style. According to Galperin, a functional style can be defined in the
following way: a functional style of language is a system of interrelated language means

25
which serves a definite aim in communication. (Galperin, 1967). Each style can be
recognised by one or more leading features which are especially conspicuous and common
for it.
As it was discussed above, selection of language forms for each communicative act depends
on several factors. For instance, depending on the situation, we choose either informal or
formal manner of speech and adhere to it. The former is observed in everyday non-official
communication which is known as colloquial speech. Colloquial speech is defined as a
distinct independent system of language means different from literary speech and
characterised with its own units and rules of their structuring.
It has long been argued that the problem of classification of functional styles is complicated
due to several reasons:
a) Functional styles are iinvariable and thus are changeable. This feature resulted in a
number of classifications. In addition, functional styles are known to be historically
inconstant
b) Functional styles are fuzzy and thus, it is not always easy to differentiate between
them. However, having said this, they still comply with certain rules based on
their stable, characterstic features .
c) The concept of functional styles is closely connected with the concept of the genre
which has not yet been delimited and determined . As well as this, one functional
style may be part of several genres which makes the issue even more difficult to
analyse. (Galperin, 1967).

However, despite the above said , the majority of scholars still recognise the following two
main subdivisions of functional styles: (a) Literary ( bookish) style, referred to as being a
result of preliminary critical thinking and analysis, deliberate selection of language means
and (b) Colloquial ( free) style characterised by lax 1 spontaneity of the discourse.
In this respect several theories suggested by the Russian school of Stylistics deserve to be
discussed in details:
Galperin distinguishes 5 functional styles:
1) Scientific;
2) Official
3) Publicist
4) Newspaper
5) Belle-lettres

1
Weak, feeble

26
As it can be seen, in his classification Galperin included only the written variety of the
language (i. e. written discourse) as he believed that style is the result of the creative
activity of the writer who consciously and deliberately selects language means and thus
creates style. On the other hand, Galperin excluded conversational style from the
classification of functional styles as, according to him, “colloquial speech does not reveal the
speaker’s stylistic intention”. Clearly, this opinion righteously gives grounds for hot
debates, since individual oral speech may also show the speaker’s educational, social and
professional background. In other words, individual oral speech also belongs to some kind of
style.

Skrebnev distinguishes the following functional styles (although he prefers the term
"sublanguage") and their variations:
1. Literary or Bookish style
a) Publicist style
b) Scientific ( technological) style
c) Official documents style
2. Free (colloquial) style
a) Literary colloquial style
b) Familiar colloquial style

As it can be seen, poetry and imaginative prose are not included in this classification as,
according to Skrebnev, the latter are not homogenous in their structure. ( Skrebnev 1985:)
In addition to this, Skrebnev also uses the word sublanguages synonymously to the term
functional styles. Interestingly, although Skrebnev recognises the major binary opposition
formal versus informal speech, he still refers to the “innumerable situational, communicative
stretches of discourse as sublanguages” . It should also be mentioned, that, sadly, based on
this classification it becomes even more complicated to define the notion of functional
styles. Due to this fact we will not delve deeper into this classification.
Arnold (Arnold, 1976) presents the relations between the functional styles as a system of
oppositions:
a) Structure : : norm : : individual use
b) National norm : : dialect
c) Neutral style : : colloquial style : : bookish style
d) Literary correct speech : : common colloquial speech

27
It is interesting to note that Arnold also singles out the concept of a neutral style, which is a
basic and unmarked member of the classification as it seems not to have any distinctive
features. Therefore, in this theory, the main function of the neutral style is to provide a
standard background for other styles which are subdivided into two groups . They also
embrace a number of extra-linguistic factors that influence the choice of specific language for
a definite communicative purpose. These groups are literary bookish style and colloquial
style.

1. Literary Bookish style 2. Colloquial Style

e) Scientific a) literary colloquial style
f) Official documents b) familiar colloquial style
g) Publicist ( newspaper) c) common colloquial style
h) Oratorical
i) poetic

The notion of the publicist style in this classification introduced by Galperin is criticised by
Skrebnev, who argues that due to the the diversity of genres in newspapers , it is not
possible to bring them under one umbrella term publicist style. Skrebnev also maintains
that besides feature articles, the items as “political observation and analyses, essays on
economic issues, legal, moral, art stories and advertisements may appear on the pages of
newspapers.” ( Skrebnev 1985) Thus, Skrebnev believes that we cannot speak about a

28
Functional style (FS) at all. Obviously, on the other hand, Arnold believes that the
newspaper material is used only in the newspaper style and involves the features such as a
special choice of words, abundance of international words, clichés, nonce-words.2
It is also argued that the status of the above-mentioned styles is yet to specify. For instance,
the notion and borders of the belles-letters style have not yet been delimited since in modern
literature any functional speech type can be employed. In addition, many works of fiction
may contain emotionally loaded passages . In addition to this, it is assumed that neither the
poetic language nor the language of fiction constitutes an independent functional style,
although it does constitute a separate functional type of a language ( Znamenskaya,2008).
On the other hand, the status of the newspaper style is also dubious and doubtful. More
specifically, it is considered that the existence of this style is conditioned by the specific aims
of mass media and also, by the specific style of newspapers. ( Znamenskaya, 2008). However,
specific features of this style are confined to very limited newspaper units , such as
-headlines, news, editorials. Due to this, some scholars consider that it is more reasonable to
speak about the newspaper language rather than about the newspaper style.
The second problem is the flexibility and fizziness of style boundaries. As it was mentioned
above, the borders within which a style presumably functions are not rigid and allow various
degrees of overlapping and melting into each other. Thus, it does not seem to be accidental
that Russian linguistics frequently speak of intermediate cases such as the popular scientific
style which combines the features of scientific and belles-lettres styles, or the style of new
journalism which is a combination of publicist, newspaper and belles-lettres styles.
(Kukharenko, 1986)
In spite of the fact that the borders of functional styles are not yet well-defined, we will still
give the features they often disclose:

Literary style
1) The style of official documents

This style is referred to as the most conservative due to several reasons: a) it preserves well-
established and well-known forms of structuring and clichés; b) uses syntactical
constructions and archaic words which may not be observed anywhere else. Empotive load
and subjective modality are not usually employed in this style.
The aim of this style is:

2
Nonce-words- is an effective way of using a morpheme for the creation of additional information.
They are not neologisms in the true sense for they are created for special communicative situations
only, and are not used beyond these occasions

29
 1) to reach agreement between 2 contracting parties participating in the creation of the
document
2) to state the conditions binding two parties in a certain understanding.

The sub-styles of the official documents are the following :

1. style of business letters
2. style of legal documents
3. style of diplomacy
4. style of military documents

Specific lexical features of the official documents

1. Each of the sub-styles of official documents makes use of specific terms and bookish,
elevated and obsolete terms
2. The documents employ obsolete set expressions inherited from as early as the Victorian
period.
3. In diplomatic and legal documents vocabulary is often borrowed from Latin or French
4. There is a big number of abbreviations and conversational symbols in each of the
substyles.

Specific Grammar features

1. Each document has its own stereotyped form which indicates the type of the letter. For
instance, business letters are written according to a fixed structure with the following
parts: heading, addressing, salutation, opening, closing, complimentary clause, signature
2. Syntactical features reveal the predominance of extended simple and complex sentences,
wide use of participial constructions which make the letters impersonal. There is also a
tendency to avoid pronoun reference.
3.
Below there are the examples of such documents:

Date
Name
Title
Organization
Address
City, State, Zip Code

30
 Dear Mr./Ms. Green,
I am writing in reply to the classified advertisement seeking to fill the position of
MA Students Administrator and Adviser for the Master of Arts in English Studies
degree program.
I have been awarded the degree of Master of Arts from the same programme, so I
understand the need for academic advice and program planning in a traditional
higher education environment. I have also experienced the advantages of being
able to contact an adviser who genuinely cares for the success of students and comes
to their assistance in all the cases.
During my career as a teacher of English I was elected President of the Association
of English teachers and part of the association’s advisory board. In this capacity I
was able to be an effective advisor to young teachers who were experiencing
problems which put their future in their chosen career to risk and those teachers
who had problems adjusting to the obligations of school life.
I believe my educational background and my workrelated duties of advising young
teachers enrolled in learning programs qualify my application for consideration for
the position of MA Students Administrator and Advisor.

I look forward to discussing how my skills can be of value to XXX ,

Sincerely,
Bill Brown

Legal doscuments
CONTRACTOR AGREEMENT

THIS AGREEMENT made this _____day of__________, 20____, by and

between___________________, hereinafter called the Contractor, and
________________________, hereinafter called the Owner.

WITNESSETH, that the Contractor and the Owner for the consideration named
herein agree as follows:

ARTICLE 1. SCOPE OF THE WORK

31
The Contractor shall furnish all the materials and perform all of the work shown on
the drawings and/or described in the specifications entitled Exhibit A, as annexed
hereto as it pertains to work to be performed on property located at:

ARTICLE 2. TIME OF COMPLETION

The work to be performed under this Contract shall be commenced on or

before________________, 20_____, and shall be substantially completed on or
before________________, 20_____. Time is of the essence.

ARTICLE 3. THE CONTRACT PRICE

The owner shall pay the Contractor for the material and labor to be performed
under the Contract the sum of _______________________________ Dollars ($ ),
subject to additions and deductions pursuant to authorized change orders.

ARTICLE 4. PROGRESS PAYMENTS

Payments of the Contract price shall be paid in the manner following:

_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________

ARTICLE 5. GENERAL PROVISIONS

1. All work shall be completed in a workmanship like manner and in compliance

with all building codes and other applicable laws.

2. To the extent required by law all work shall be performed by individuals duly
licensed and authorized by law to perform said work.

3. Contractor may at its discretion engage subcontractors to perform work

hereunder, provided Contractor shall fully pay said subcontractor and in all
instances remain responsible for the proper completion of this Contract.

4. Contractor shall furnish Owner appropriate releases or waivers of lien for all

32
work performed or materials provided at the time the next periodic payment shall
be due.

5. All change orders shall be in writing and signed by both Owner and Contractor.

6. Contractor warrants it is adequately insured for injury to its employees and

others incurring loss or injury as a result of the acts of Contractor or its employees
and subcontractors.

7. Contractor shall at its own expense obtain all permits necessary for the work to
be performed.

8. Contractor agrees to remove all debris and leave the premises in broom clean
condition.

9. In the event Owner shall fail to pay any periodic or installment payment due
hereunder, Contractor may cease work without breach pending payment or
resolution of any dispute.

10. All disputes hereunder shall be resolved by binding arbitration in accordance

with the rules of the American Arbitration Association.

11. Contractor shall not be liable for any delay due to circumstances beyond its
control including strikes, casualty or general unavailability of materials.

12. Contractor warrants all work for a period of __________ months following
completion.

ARTICLE 6. OTHER TERMS

__________________________________________________
Signed this ____day of________________, 20_____.
______________________________
Owner

33
The Scientific style
SCIENTIFIC PROSE STYLE
The main aim of the functional style of scientific prose is to prove а certain hypothesis, to
create and define new concepts and to describe certain research, etc. The language means
employed in this style, therefore, are objective, precise and less emotional, devoid of any
individuality; Due to the goals of this functional style , there is а striving for the most
generalized forms of expression.
The most noticeable features of this style аre the following:
1. The logical sequence of utterances with clear indications of their interrelations, coherence
and interdependence with a highly developed and varied system of connectives.
2. The use of terms specific to each given branch of science.
3. The use of quotations and references based on а certain compositional pattern (Harvard
System, ILA system, etc)
4. The use of foot-notes digressive in character.
6. The impersonality and unemotionality of a scientific text. The use of personal pronouns in
plural instead of singular is called ‘Solidarity we’ or ‘Modesty we’.
in academic circles.
Thus, the scientific style is employed in a professional discourse and aims at creating new
concepts and introduction and substantiation of certain scientific research. Consequently,
these aims determine the choice of vocabulary and grammar.
The style of scientific prose possesses three sub-divisions :
1) humanities
2) exact sciences
3) popular scientific prose

Lexical characteristics
1. Abundance of special terminology, lack of emotionality amd modality.
2. Abundance of bookish words and set phrases as well as clichés

Grammatical characteristics
Morphology:
1. The author’s speech is presented in the first person plural/singular
2. Impersonal sentences and abundance of passive voice

Syntax
1. Complex, extended sentences and logical cohesion
2. The abundance of specific prepositions, conjunctions, connectives

34
 An example of an Abstract

ABSTRACT
The Shakespeare authorship controversy has generally settled upon the Earl of
Oxford as the leading contender to William [Shakespere]. But the Oxfordians have
only succeeded in presenting evidence which can prove nothing with any certainty.
The bulk of evidence marshaled by the Oxfordians is coincidental, speculative, often
irrelevant, and always inconclusive. If the Oxfordians wish to prove their case, that
Edward de Vere is the real Shakespeare, then a new methodology is needed. And
there is only one logical point of initial attack—the point at which Oxford stops
writing and Shakespeare emerges, about the year 1590.
All authors have an inherent stylistic and creative imprint. A comparative analysis of
Oxford’s poetry to Shakespeare’s first poetry, the two narratives, Venus and Adonis
and The Rape of Lucrece, will reveal Oxford’s style as the early developing
Shakespeare. The new methodology must focus on building an empirical model for
linguistic and stylistic analysis based primarily upon an author’s patterned use of
syntactic grammatical tendencies.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/71f7/0e72db3023d3d7c1684ea017b5edbf31e2f2.pdf

The Publicist style

In ancient Greece the publicist style was referred to as oratorical style. However, it became
fully functional as аn independent style in the middle of the 18th century. Currently
political, ideological, ethical, social beliefs and statements of the speaker are largely expressed
in the written form. However, this does not exclude the possiblilities of oral presentations
and public speeches.

Publicist style is particularly famous for its explicit inherent pragmatic function of
persuasion directed at influencing the reader. The general aim of this style is to acquire
constant and lasting influence on public opinion, to convince the reader or the listener that
the interpretation given by the writer of the speaker is the only correct one and to force him
to accept a certian point of view. This may be achieved not only by logical argumentation
but by emotional and cultural appeals as well. Thus, this style is widely used for propaganda
and interprets certain political, social, economic, cultural issues. On the other hand, the

35
capacity of “brain-washing” is most openly expressed in oratory. This is because here the
most powerful instrument of persuasion, the human voice, is brought into play.
In general , the publicist style is characterized by the following features:
1. Coherent and logical syntactical structure of the text;
2. Expanded system of connectives ensuring cohesion of the text;
З. Careful paragraphing and structuring of the text;
4. Ample use of the words with loded with emotive colouring;
5. Wide use of imagery and trite stylistic devices
6. Brevity and preciseness of expression.

Sub-styles of the Publicist style

Oral forms:
1. Oratory/public speeches
2. Radio and TV commentaries

Written forms:
1. Essays
2. Journalistic articles (political, social, economic)

Oral forms: Oratory

Oratory is an oral, specially prepared speech aimed at informing the listener, feeding them
on certain issues, affecting them and persuading them into believing the logics of certain
facts and events. Due to the direct contact with the targeted audience and to influence
them, the oratory employs syntactic, lexical and phonetic expressive means. The vocabulary
of the oratory comprises is neutral and literary words, as well as colloquial expressions.
However, slang is not commonly used here. On the other hand, a great number of expressive
means are employed to arouse and keep the public interest. These maybe repetitions,
gradations, antithesis, rhetorical questions, inversion, emotionally loaded words. It should
also be mentioned that although radio and TV commentaries are less impersonal they are
usually more expressive and emotional.
The following typical features of the spoken variety of speech are as follows :
1. The use of direct address forms while addressing the audience (e.g.: ladies and gentlemen,
honourable member(s), 2nd person pronoun) as well as the clichés expressing gratitude and
thankfulness;
2. Employment of contractions (I’ll, won’t, haven’t, isn’t and others)

36
3. The use of colloquial words and expressions, clichés and set expressions.
4. The use of stylistic devices. The most typical stylistic device of English oratorical style is
repetition which enables the listeners to follow the speaker and retain the main points of his
speech; it is meant to convince the audience and to add weight to the speaker's opinion.
5. Similes and metaphors used are generally traditional and trite, as fresh and genuine
stylistic devices may divert the attention of the listeners away from the main point of the
speech;
This style is evident in speeches on political and social problems of the day, in orations and
addresses on solemn occasions, as public weddings, funerals and jubilees, in sermons and
debates and also in the speeches of counsel and judges in courts of law.

Written forms: The essay

The essay is a small piece of prose on a philosophical, literary, critical or ethical topic. The
authors are not expected to deeply analyse the issue although they are still expected to
present their subjective approach to the issue.
The most obvious characteristics of the essay are the following:
1. Expressing personal views while treating the theme;
2. Naturalness of expression;
3. Brevity of expression
4. The use of the first person singular, which justifies а personal approach to the problems
described;
5. А rather expanded and specific use of connectives, which facilitate the process of
understanding the correlation and cohesion of ideas;
6. The abundant use of emotively loaded lexis;
7. The use of similes and sustained, trite (conventional) metaphors.
Some essays, depending on the writer’s individuality, are written in а highly emotional
manner which resembles the style of emotive prose, others bear scientific prose
characteristics.
In comparison with the oratorical style, the essay aims at а more lasting effect. Epigrams,
paradoxes and aphorisms are comparatively rare in the oratory, as they require the
concentrated attention of the listener. In the essay they are more соmmоn, for the reader is

37
presented with an opportunity to make а careful and detailed study of both - the content of
the utterance and its form.

The Belles-lettres style

The Belles-lettres style, or the style of imaginative literature, may be called the richest
register of communication as besides its own language means, it makes ample use of other
styles too, for in numerous works of literary art we find elements of scientific, official and
other functional types of speech. Thus, this style is often referred to as eclectic. Besides
informative and persuasive functions, also found in other functional styles, the belles-lettres
style has a unique tasks to impress the reader aesthetically which makes it the main function
of the Belles-lettres style.
The sub-styles of Belles-Lettres Functional style:
1. Poetry
2. Emotive prose
3. Drama
The belles-lettres style rests on certain indispensable linguistic features:
1. Genuine imagery achieved by purely linguistic devices
2. Contextual modifications of word-meaning
3. Evaluative and descriptive vocabulary
4. Individual selection of vocabulary and syntax
5. Possible usage of colloquial language

Colloquial style
As it was mentioned above, Galperin denies the existence of this functional style as
he thinks that functional style can be singled out only in the written variety of language.
According to him, the style is the result of a careful selection of language means which
constitute the specific style in their correlation. There's a discrepancy in Galperin's theory.
One of the sub-styles of the publicistic style is oratory which is its oral subdivision.
Clearly, colloquial style is the type of speech which is used in situation that allows
certain deviations from the rigid pattern of literary speech used not only in a private
conversation, but also in private correspondence. So, the style is applicable both to the
written and oral varieties of the terms "colloquial" and "bookish" don't exactly correspond to
the oral and written forms of speech. However, Maltzev suggests terms "formal" and
"informal" and states that colloquial style is the part of informal variety of English which is

38
used orally in conversation. (Maltzev, 2001). The major characteristics of this style is that it
is communicative, interactive and emotive,
Arnold distinguishes literary and familiar colloquial style.
Literary colloquial style:
Phonetic features
1. standard pronunciation in compliance with the norm.
2. Phonetic compression of frequently used forms: don’t; I’ve
3. Omission of unaccented elements due to the quick tempo: you know her?
Morphological features:
1.Use of regular morphological features, with interceptive of evaluative suffixes:doggie
Syntactical features
1. Use of simple sentences with a number of participial and infinitive constructions and
parentheses
2. Syntactically correct utterances compliant with the norm
3. Use of various forms of syntactical contractions
4. Prevalence of active and finite verb forms
5. Use of special colloquial phrases: that friend of yours
Lexical features:
1. Wide range of vocabulary strata in accordance with the register of communicative
acts and participants roles: formal /informal; neutral/bookish; terms and foreign words
2. Basic stock of communicative vocabulary is stylistically neutral
3. Use of socially accepted contracted forms and abbreviations: fridge; ice ( for ice-
cream);
4. Use of etiquette English an d conversational formulae: nice to see you
5. Extensive use of intensifiers and gap-fillers : absolutely; definitely, awfully
6. Use of interjections and exclamations: Dear me
7. Extensive use of phrasal verbs: let smb. down
8. Use of words of indefinite meaning: stuff; thing;
9. Devoid of slang, vulgarisms, jargon, dialect words
10. Use of phraseological units and idioms, trite figures of speech
Compositional features
1. Can be used in written and spoken varieties, dialogues, monologues, personal letters,
essays, articles, etc
2. Prepared types of texts, such as letters, presentations, articles, interviews

39
3. Spontaneous types with loose structure , relative coherence and uniformity of form
and context
Familiar colloquial style
Phonetic features:
1. Casual and careless pronunciation, nonce words formed on morphological and
phonetic analogy with other nominal words: helter-skelter ( mess); hugger-mugger ( secret)
2. Extensive use of collocations and phrasal words instead of neutral and literary
equivalents: turn in ( instead of go to bed)
Syntactical features
1. Use of simple sentences
2. Simples dialogues
3. Use of echo questions, repetitions
4. Abundance of colloquial interjections: wow, hey
5. Use of hyperbole, epithet, evaluative vocabulary, trite metaphors and similes: horrid,
hilarious, fantastic
6. Mixture of curse words and euphemisms: damn, dash, darned
Compositional features:
1. Use of deviant language on all levels
2. Strong emotional colouring
3. Loose syntactical organization and adherence to the topic
4. Frequently little coherence and adherence to the topic.
5. No special compositional patterns
Classification of Functional Styles of the English Language
1. The Belles - Lettres Functional Style.
a) poetry;
b) emotive prose;
c) drama;

2. Publicistic Functional Style,

a) oratory;
b) essays;
c) articles in newspapers and magazines;

The Official Documents Functional Style.

a) diplomatic documents;

40
b) business letters;
c) military documents;
d) legal documents;

Practical Session:
I. Answer the following questions:
1. What are the issues commonly discussed when dealing with the problem of style?
2. What is the difference between style and norm?
3. Characterise register
4. Compare the classifications of functional styles in English described in this chapter. Which
of the classifications of the functional style do you consider to be complete? Why? Compare
your choice to that of your friends .
5.What extralinguistic factors are involved in the notion of style? How do style and personal
factors correlate? What styles exist in any national language?
6.What is the literary norm of a language? What does the term 'a norm variation' imply?
How is each style characterised by the function it fulfils?
7. Why is he problem of classification of functional styles complicated? Discuss the reasons
II Identify the functional style in each of the texts given below and point out the distinctive
features that testify to its specific character:
1
It has long been known that when exposed to light under suitable conditions of temperature
and moisture, the green parts of plants use carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and release
oxygen to it. These exchanges are the opposite of those, which occur in respiration. The
process is called photosynthesis. In photosynthesis, carbohydrates are synthesized from
carbon dioxide and water by the chloroplasts of plant cells in the presence of light. Oxygen is
the product of the reaction. For each molecule of carbon dioxide used, one molecule of
oxygen is released. A summary chemical equation for photosynthesis is:
6C02 = 6H20 > С6Н12Об + 602.

2.)
You was sharp, wasn't you, to catch me like that, eh? By Ga-ard
you had me fixed proper, proper you had. Darn me, you fixed me up
proper— proper, you did.
I don't think no worse of you for it, no, darned if I do. Fine pluck in
a woman's what I admire. That I do indeed.

41
 Wefetfrom the start, we did. And, my word, you begin again quick the
minute you see me, you did. Darn me, you was too sharp for me. A darn
fine woman, puts up a darn good fight. Darn me if I could find a woman
in all the darn States as could get me down like that. Wonderful fine
woman you be, truth to say, at this minute. (Lawrence)

3.
The basis of this project was to create a garment using mixed media in order to mimic
the human body. The materials we used to create this piece include: buckram, copper
wire, spray paint, fabric paint, a variety of novelty fabrics, and chains.  The techniques
we created in order to manipulate the piece include: fabric branding and burning, grid
painting, sewing, draping, molding buckram, and coiling.  Our overall approach was to
create a theatrical wearable art piece. Upon completion of the assignment we found the
piece aesthetically pleasing because of the way it molds to the human body, but can be
a piece all on its own.
4.
But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles
away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the
length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been
invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been
experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the
equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival,
on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth,
re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about
half that of the temperature of the sun--almost as hot as it is here today--and do all this,
and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out--then we must be bold.” 

5.

Dear Mr. Brown,

I have written to you several times over the past three months requesting an explanation
on why you have failed to bring your account with us current.
By ignoring these requests, you are damaging the excellent credit record you had
previously maintained with our company. In addition, you are incurring additional
expense to yourself and to us.

42
 Unless I hear from you within ten days, I will have no other choice but to turn your
account over for collection.
I am sorry that we must take such drastic action but I am afraid you leave us no
alternative. You can preserve your credit rating by remitting your check today for the
amount stated above.
Yours sincerely,
George Smith
6
Watching television is an experience shared by most adults and children. It is cheap,
appealing, and within the reach of the general public. In this way, TV has become an
important mass media around the world. Sadly, this resource isn’t used in a way that
people could get the best possible benefits from it. The purpose of this essay is to persuade
the reader that people shouldn’t watch too much television because the content of many
TV programs is not educational; it makes people waste time that could be used in more
beneficial activities; and it negatively affects people’s mental development.

III . State whether the following statements are True or False

1. Functional stylistics relies on the interplay between the norm and function T F
and their attitude towards style.
2. Style is connected with the usage of language in some specific way. T F
3. Stylistics is not interested in the examples taken from communicative T F
situations.
4. Stylistics and Sociolinguistics may explore similar issues. T F
5. Literary language is a homogenous entity . T F
6. Style does not vary according to the target communicator. T F
7. Appropriateness depends on the speakers' social and educational T F
parameters.
8. Galperin believed that conversational style does not reveal the speaker’s T F
stylistic intention.

IV. Circle the correct answer from A, B, C and explain your choice
1. ………… excluded conversational style from the inventory of functional styles.
A Galperin B Screbnev C Arnold
2 ………… singles out the concept of a neutral style.
A Galperin B Arnold C Screbnev

43
 3 ……….. is a small piece of prose on abstract philosophical, literary, critical or
ethical topic.
A Newspaper article B The essay C The military contract
4 ........ is an oral, prepared speech aimed at informing the listener, elucidating and
affecting them.
A Oratory B Essay C Newspaper article
5 Which of the folliwing has a direct conatct with the listener?
A Political article B Essay C Oratory
6 Which style is devoid of individuality ?
A Publicist B Scinetific C Literary
7 Which style has the primary function of “brainwashing” the public?
A Literary B Scientific C Publicist
8 Which of these uses excessive number of cliches?
A Editorial B A novel C An oratory

V Project ideas:
1. Compare and contrast Galperin’s, Skrebnev’s and Arnold’s classifications and give
relevant examples of the styles singled out in all of them.
2. Compare and contrast the elements of documents ( business letters, legal
documents). Give your own examples
3. Compare and contrast the elements of documents ( style of diplomacy, style of
military documents ). Give your own examples
4. Compare and contrast the elements of the publicist style (news, commentaries,
essays). Give your examples

44
CHAPTER 3

The Functional style of the Newspaper

English newspaper writing dates back to the 17th century, when short news pamphlets
began to appear, and though they couldn't be classed as newspapers, they were
unquestionably the immediate forerunners of the British press. The first of any regular series
of English newspapers was the Weekly News which first appeared on May 23, 1622. The
first English daily newspaper - the Daily Courant - was released on March 11, 1702. It was
only in the 19th century when the newspaper developed into а system of language media,
forming as а separate functional style.
Not all the printed matter found in newspapers comes under the newspaper style. Stories and
poems, crossword puzzles, chess problems are published to entertain the reader,and they
cannot be considered as the elements of newspaper style. Newspaper materials inform the
reader and provide him/her with an evaluation of the information. This can be regarded as a
function of the newspaper style. English newspaper style may be defined as а system of
interrelated lexical, phraseological and grammatical means perceived by the community as а
separate linguistic unity and serves the purpose of informing and instructing the reader.
Information in the English newspaper is conveyed through the medium of :
1) Brief news items,
2) Press reports (parliamentary, of court proceedings, etc.),

45
3) Articles which are purely informative in character,
4) Advertisements and announcements.
The newspaper also seeks to influence public opinion on political and other issues of.
Elements appraisal and/or evaluation may be observed in the very selection and the way of
presentation of the news, in the use of specific vocabulary, ( for instance, 'allege' and 'claim’
which cast some doubt on the facts reported), and syntactic constructions indicating а lack of
assurance on the part of the reporter. Linguistic means applied reveal that journalists are not
sure concerning the correctness of the facts reported or express the desire to avoid
responsibility (e.g.: 'Мr. Х was said to have opposed the proposal'; 'Mr. Х was quoted as
saying’; as alleged/pointed out/stated by Mr. X). The headlines of news items, apart from
giving information about the subject-matter, also carry а considerable amount of appraisal
(the topography, size, font, and arrangement of the headline, the use of emotionally coloured
words and elements of emotive syntax). Thus, it seems natural to regard newspaper articles,
editorials as coming within the system of English newspaper style. However, it should be
noted that while editorials and other articles published in “opinion columns” are
predominantly evaluative, newspaper feature articles, as а rule, carry а considerable amount
of information, and the ratio of the informative versus the evaluative varies substantially
from article to article.
Thus, the main aim of the newspaper style is to inform and instruct the reader, to transfer
the information objectively in oral and/or written form without introducing any subjective
or emotional evaluation.
The Sub-styles of Newspaper functional style
1. Brief news items and communiques
2. Advertisements and announcements
3. Headlines
4. The editorial

Lexical characteristics
1. Proper names: toponymy, anthroponomy, names of institutions and organisations
2. Numerals and dates
3. Abundance of internationalisms
4. Tendency to produce and reproduce neologisms which later become clichés ( vital
issue, pillar of society)
5. A great number of political and economic terms, non-term political vocabulary,
abstract words, newspaper clichés, abbreviations
6. Abundance of evaluative and expressive vocabulary

46
Grammar characteristics
1. Syntactic constructions, indicating a lack of assurance of the reporter as to the
correctness of the facts reported or his desire to avoid responsibility
2. Complex sentences
3. Syntactic and verbal constructions ( infinitive, participial, gerundial), etc
4. Attributive noun groups ( the national income)
5. Quotations
6. Set expressions ( make contact with, serve the purpose of )
However, apart from this, newspaper style has its specific vocabulary features and is
characterized by an extensive use of
1. Specific political and economic and business terms (е. g. constitution, president, apartheid,
bу-election, General AssembIy, gross output, реr capita production).
2. General vocabulary (е. g. pubIic, реорlе, progressive, nation-wide, unity, реаcе). А
characteristic feature of political vocabulary is that the border line between terms and non-
terms is less distinct than in the vocabulary of other special fields. The semantic structure of
some words comprises both terms and non-terms (е. g. nation, crisis, agreement, mеmbеr,
representative, and leader).
3. Newspaper clichés, i.e. stereotyped expressions, commonplace phrases familiar to the
reader (е. g. vital issue, pressing рrоblem, informed sources, danger of war, to escalate а war,
war hysteria, overwhelming majority, stormy applause).
Clichés аге commonly looked upon as а defect of style. Some clichés, especially those which
are based оn trite images (e.g. captains of industry, pillars of society, bulwark of civilization)
may sound pompous. On the other hand, others, such as welfare state, affluent society, are
classed false and misleading. Despite the said, clichés аге indispensable in newspaper style:
they arouse necessary associations and prevent ambiguity of the context and
misunderstanding.
4. Abbreviations. Among them abbreviated terms-names of organizations; public and state
bodies, political associations, industrial and other companies, various offices, etc., known bу
their initials аге very соmmоn, e.g. UN (United Nations Organization), TUC (Trades Union
Congress), NAТО (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), EU (European Union), FO (Foreign
Office) , PIB (Prices and Incomes Board), etc.
5. Neologisms. The newspaper is very quick to react to аnу new development in the life of
society, in science and technology, andcoin new words and expressions; e.g., а splash-down
(the act of bringing а spacecraft to а water surface), backlash оr white backlash (а violent
reaction American racists to the Negroes' struggle for civil rights).

47
The vocabulary of brief news items is for the most part devoid of emotional colouring. Some
papers, however, especially those classed as "mass" оr "popular" papers, tend to introduce
emotionally coloured lexical units.
However, the basic characteristic of the brief news item lies in their syntactical structure. As
the reporters is obliged to bе brief, they naturally try to сrаm all the facts into the space
allotted. The size of brief news items varies from оnе sentence to several (short) paragraphs.
There are following grammatical peculiarities of brief news items аге of paramount
importance, and maybe regarded as their grammatical parameters.
1) Complex sentences with а developed system of clauses (е. g. "Мк. Boyd-Carpenter, Chief
Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster-General (Кingston-upon-Thames), said he had been
asked what was behind the statement in the Speech that the position of war pensioners and
those receiving national insurance benefits would bе kept under close review" (The Тimes).
2) Verbal constructions (infinitive, participial, gerundial) and verbal noun constructions (e.g.
"Мr. Nobusuke Kishi, the former Prime Minister of Japan has sought to set аn example to the
faction-ridden Governing Liberal Democratic Party bу announcing the disbanding of his
own faction numbering 47 of the total of 295 conservative members of the Lower House of
the Diet." (The Тimes))
3) Syntactical complexes, especially the nominative with the infinitive. These constructions
аrе largely used to avoid mentioning the source of information or to shun responsibility for
the facts reported (e.g. "The condition of Lord Samuel, aged 92, was said last night to bе а
'Iittle better." (The Guardian)).
4) Attributive noun groups аге another powerful means of effecting brevity in news items,
e.g. A heart swap patient' (The Guardian), 'the паtiопаl income and expenditure figures' (The
Тimes), 'Labour backbench decision' (The Independent),
5) Specific word-order in one-sentence news paragraphs and in what are called "Leads" (the
initial sentences in longer news items) is more or less fixed. Journalistic practice has
developed what is called the "five-w-and-h-pattern rule" (who-what-why-how-where-
when), i.e., Subject- Predicate -Object-Adverbial modifier of reason (manner) - Adverbial
modifier of place-Adverbial modifier of time.
There are some other, though less marked, tendencies in news item writing such as
occasional disregard for the sequence of tenses rule, e.g. 'The committee - which was
investigating the working of the 1969 Children and Young Persons Act - said that some
school children are getting only two hours lessons а day." (Morning Star)
Despite the character of the newspaper and the variety and range of subject matter discussed
(whether it is political, literary, popular-scientific or satirical) all the already mentioned

48
features of publicist style are typically found in any article. The character of the newspaper
as well as the subject chosen affects the choice and use of stylistic devices. Words expessing
emotions are not frequently employed. Their exposition here is more consistent and the
system of connectives is more varied than, say, in а satirical article.

The language of political articles does not differ from that of other types of newspaper
articles. However, such elements of publicist style as rare, bookish and high-flown words
(e.g. ambivalent, exhilarated, etc), neologisms (which sometimes require explanation in the
text), traditional word-combinations and parenthesis are more frequent here than in other
types of newspaper articles. Argumentation and emotional appeal here is achieved by
emphatic constructions of different kinds ('Wilson is anything but a romantic person; he was
thrilled and horrified).
Literary reviews stand closer to essays, but more abstract words of logical meaning are used
in them, they often resort to emotional language and less frequently to additional set
expressions.
The feature articles are classed to be more impersonal and their major aim is to transfer the
information. However, it is maintained that the language of specialised political journals and
magazines differs from that of newspaper articles in that in the former case bookish words
and neologisms are more frequent. Literary reviews stand closer to essays both by their
content and by their linguistic form. However, they more often use emotional devices and
less frequently traditional set expressions and trite metaphors.
An article
An article is a written work published in a print or electronic medium. It may be for the
purpose of disseminating news, research results, academic analysis, or debate.
A news article discusses current or recent news of either general interest (i.e. daily
newspapers) or of a specific topic (i.e. political or trade news magazines, club newsletters, or
technology news websites).
A news article can include accounts of eyewitnesses to the happening event. It can contain
photographs, accounts, statistics, graphs, recollections, interviews, polls, debates on the topic,
etc. The writer can also give facts and detailed information following answers to general
questions like who, what, when, where, why and how.
The anatomy of an article can be characterised as follows:
Headline
Headlines will be discussed in detail below. We will just say that a headline is the text above
a newspaper article, indicating its topic. The headline is used to capture the attention of the

49
reader and should be connected with the topic. For instance Parenting Guru: From Chaos to
Access; Health Insurance Companies HATE This New Trick
Byline
A byline gives the name and often the position of the writer. For instance: By Jim Street
Lede
The lede is critical to the article as it captures the attention of the reader and sums up the
focus of the story. As well as this, it is meant to “hook the reader into the article”. The lead
also establishes the subject, sets the tone and guides reader into the article. (Jacobi, Peter,
The Magazine Article: How to Think It, Plan It, Write It. Writer's Digest Books: 1991, ISBN
0-89879-450-1, pp. 50-77).

Body or running text

For the news story, details and elaboration are evident in the body or running text of the
news story and flow smoothly from the lead. Quotes are used to add interest and support to
the story. Most news stories are structured using what is called an inverted pyramid. The
angle (also called a hook or peg) is usually the most newsworthy aspect of the story and is
specifically highlighted and elaborated upon.
http://www.thenewsmanual.net/Resources/glossary.html
A featured article follows a format appropriate for its type. The featured articles may include
the following contents:
• chronological, where the article may be a narrative of some sort;
• cause and effect, where the reasons and results of an event or process are examined;
• classification, where items in an article are grouped to help aid understanding;
• compare and contrast, where two or more items are examined side-by-side to show
similarities and differences;
• list, a simple item-by-item run-down of pieces of information;
• question and answer, such as an interview with a celebrity or rebel
Conclusion
This part of the article will sum up the article, possibly including a final quote, a descriptive
scene, a play on the title or lead, a summary statement, or the writer's opinion. Make the
conclusion attention-grabbing.
Other types of articles may include:

50
Academic paper – an article published in an academic journal. The status of academics is
often dependent both on how many articles they have had published and on the number of
times that their articles are cited by authors of other articles.
Scientific paper – an article published in a scientific journal.
Blog – some blog articles are like magazine or newspaper articles; others are written more
like entries in a personal journal.
Spoken article – an article produced in the form of an audio recording, also referred to as a
podcast.
Listicle – an article whose primary content is a list.
Portrait – a portrait of a person depicted in the article.

Brief news items:

The function of brief news items is to inform the reader and state the fact without giving
comments. Thus, they are characterised by complete lack of emotional colouring and
individuality of expression. Because of this, they reveal stereotyped forms of expression and
largely neutral and literary vocabulary. The most important charecteristics is the briefness of
expression and structure.
Lead
In most papers, the lead appears on the front page at the top of the right-hand column. Some
newspeapers, for example, The New York Times is the strictest about this rule, while others
may vary the most from this standard. Some newspapers, for example, the Washington Post
displaces the lead with a feature story–usually one with an eye-grabbing visual. In these
cases, the lead will almost always be the next story down in the right-hand column. The
example of the lead is: Coronavirus/Covid-19 is found in sub- Sahara Africa and WHO says
spread can get out of control;

Raul Castro to quit (In five years)

The end of the Castro era in Cuba is nearing after president Raul announced he would
make way for a new generation of rulers.
But the 81-year-oldwill not step down for five years, when his latest term in office ends.
He and bother Fidel have ruled the island for 54 years, since the 1959 communist
revolution. As he accepted his new presidential term, Raul Castro said : “This will be my
last”. He also revealed that rising star Miguel Diaz-Canel would be his second-in-
command , making him the leading contender to take over.

51
 The 52-year-old has advanced higher than any other official not involved in the
revolution. The president also hinted at major political reforms but warned: “I was not
chosen to be president to restore capitalism in Cuba”.

Headlines
Headline writers use a wide range of devices to create a very specific style, which is
sometimes called ‘headlines’ (the main point of the story must be put in a nutshell and at the
same time capture the reader’s attention). Therefore, an essential feature of headlines is their
typographical make-up. They are usually in a larger and bolder typeface than that of the
articles they introduce.
As well as this, syntactically headlines may be very short sentences or phrases of a
variety of patterns:
1. Full declarative sentences
2. Interrogative sentences
3. Elliptical sentence. There аге also group headlines, which аге almost а summary of
the information contained in the news item оr article.

FIRE FORCES AIRLINER ТО TURN ВАСК

Cabin Filled With Smoke
Safe Landing For 97 Passengers
Atlantic Drama In Super VC 10
Though the vocabulary considered in the analysis of brief news items, headlines abound
in emotionally coloured words and phrases, for example:
Tax agent а cheat (Daily World)
Furthermore, to attract the reader's attention, headline writers often resort to а deliberate
breaking-up of set expressions, in particular fused set expressions, and deformation of
special terms, а stylistic device сapable of producing а strong emotional effect, e.g.
Cakes and Bitter Ale (The Sunday Times)
Commander-in-chief Still at Large (The Guardian)
What is the point of saving? (BBC news)
Cоmраrе respectively the allusive set expression cakes and аlе, and the term
‘commander-in-chief'.
Other stylistic devices are not infrequent in headlines, as for example the pun (е.g. 'And
what about Watt -The Observer), alliteration (е.g: Miller in Maniac Mood - The
Observer), etc.
Syntactically headlines are very short sentences or phrases of а variety of patterns:

52
 1. Full declarative sentences, е. g. ‘They Threw Bombs on Gipsy Sites' (Morning Star),
'Allies Now Look to London' (The Times)
2. Interrogative sentences, е.g. 'Do you love war?' (Daily World), 'Will Celtic confound
pundits?’ (Morning Star)
3. Nominative sentences, е.g. 'Gloomy Sunday' (The Guardian), 'Atlantic Sea Traffic' (The
Times).
4. Elliptical sentences:
With an auxiliary verb omitted, е.g. 'Initial report not expected until June!' (The
Guardian),
With the subject omitted, е.g. 'Will win' (Morning Star), 'Will give Mrs. Onassis $
250,000 а year' (The New York Times);
With the subject and part of the predicateomitted, е.g. 'Off to the sun' (Morning Star),
'Still in danger' (The Guardian)
Sentences with articles omitted, е.g. 'Step to Overall Settlement Cited in Text of
Agreement' (International Herald Tribune), 'Blaze kills 15 at Party" (The Sun)
5. Phrases with verbal-infinitive, participial and gerundia structures , е. g. 'Keeping Prices
Down' (The Times), 'Preparing reply on cold war' (The Sun), 'Speaking parts’ (The
Sunday Times)
6. Questions in the form of statements , е.g. ‘The worse the better?' (Daily World), 'Growl
now, smile later?' (The Observer)
7. Complex sentences, е. g. 'Senate Panel Hears Board of Military Experts Who Favoured
Losing Bidder' (The New York Times).
8. Headlines including direct speech:
Introduced by а full sentence, е.g., 'Prince Richard says: "I was not in trouble" (The
Guardian), 'What Oils the Wheels of Industry?
4. Introduced elliptically, е. g. The Queen: "My deep distress'.

Advertisements and Announcements

The function of advertisements and announcements is to inform the reader. They fall under
two groups: classified and non-classified. In classified ads information is arranged according
to the subject matter: births, marriages, deaths, business offers, personal, etc.
Specific features:
1. elliptical pattern
2. brevity of expression
3. positive evaluative vocabulary.

53
 ROBUST, friendly student, not entirely unintelligent, seeks Christmas vacation job. No
wife, will travel, walk, ride or drive and undertake any domestic, agricultural or
industrial activity. Will bidders for this curiously mortal chap, please writ/UBox С. 552,
(The Times, E.G. 4.)

Unrivalled care in luxurious surroundings

West Hall care home offers you the reassurance of unrivalled care and support. Residents
can enjoy exceptional facilities set in a unique manor house.
We pride ourselves in offering a relaxed, warm and friendly atmosphere which feels like
home and where residents have the freedom to enjoy life their way with all the support
they need.
Come along and see for yourself how wonderful life is at West Hall.

Non-classified advertisements and announcements, the variety of language form and subject-
matter is so great that it makes it difficult to single out any essential features. The reader’s
attention is attracted by every possible means: typographical, graphical and stylistic, lexical
and syntactical. The advertiser can buy as much space they choose:
What we want
A banks’ business is with other people’s money, so we want people whose integrity is
beyond question. Money is a very personal business, so we want people who like people.
Banking is work that calls for accuracy, so we want people who can work accurately.
Our staff has to have integrity, personality, accuracy. We want them to have
imagination too.

Anouncements may be of several types. They can announce births, deaths , engagements or
weddings.
For instance, Mr. and Mrs. Brown of Keworth are pleased to announce the engagement of
their daughter, Nancy to John, son of Mr. and Mrs. Green of London. An October wedding is
planned."
Births

On 12 May, 2018, to Mary and John, a beautiful daughter, Anna Elizabeth, an adored
sister for Alexander and Bella.

54
 Deaths
Patrick William (Pat), on 22nd June, 2014, in his 80th year. Beloved husband of Ivy and
dearly loved father of Mandy and Michael, Grandfather of Alison, James and Laura.
Private family funeral. No flowers. Donations to the Nottingham Hospice.

As can be seen, announcements and advertisements follow the same format and linguistic
characteristics: they use elliptic sentences, and are charecterised by brevity and laconicity.

The Editorial
An editorial is an intermediate phenomenon bearing the stamp of both the newspaper and
the publicist style. The function of the editorial is to influence the reader by giving the
editor’s interpretation of certain facts. The editorials are characterised by emotionally
coloured vocabulary, trite SDs, e.g. a spectacular sight; allusions which are of two types (a)
political and (b) historical, (literary or biblical. https://eng.1sept.ru/article.php?
ID=200701408)
In addition to vocabulary typical of brief news items, writers of editorials use emotionally
coloured vocabulary. Alongside political words and expressions, terms, cliches and
abbreviations, colloquial words and expressions, slang and professionalisms are also found.
THATCHER
MRS. ТНАTCHER has now arrived back from her American jamboree (coll.) proudly
boasting that she is now "totally established as а political leader in the international
sphere."
This simply goes to show that the fawning (emotionally coloured) American audiences
drawn from the top drawer (linguistic imagery) of US capitalist society to whom she
spoke will buy (colloq.) any farrago of trite and pious platitudes.

Obviously, this editorial is written from a socialist perspective, criticising Mrs. Thatcher.
Emotional colouring in editorial articles is achieved with the help of various stylistic devices,
both lexical and syntactical, the use of which is largely traditional. As well as this, editorials
abound in trite stylistic means, especially metaphors and epithets, e.g. international climate,
а price explosion, а price spiral, а spectacular sight, an outrageous act, brutal rule, an
astounding statement, crazy policies. Traditional periphrases are also very common in
newspaper editorials, such as Downing Street (the British Government), Fleet Street (the
London press), the Great Powers (the six or seven biggest and strongest states), the third

55
world, and so on. Most trite stylistic means commonly used in the newspaper have also
become clichés.
However, genuine stylistic means are also sometimes used, which helps the writer of the
editorial to bring his idea home to the reader. Two types of allusions can be distinguished in
newspaper article writing:
 Allusions to political and other facts of the day
 Historical, literary and biblical allusions which are often used to create а specific
stylistic effect, largely-satirical

Yet, the role of expressive language means and stylistic devices in the editorial should not be
over-estimated. Original forms of expression and fresh genuine stylistic means are
comparatively rare in newspaper articles, editorials included.

Practice Session:

I. Answer the following questions:

1. Does all the printed material in newspapers belong to newspaper style? Why?/Why not?
2. What is the primary finction of the newspaper style?
3. How is the informaiton conveyed in the newspaper style?
4. Do you support the idea according to which newspaper style should be singled out as a
separate independent functional style? Why/Why not?
5. Which term describes the essence of the issue: "functional style" or "sublanguage"?
Justify your opinion.
6. What makes the news/editorial/ advertisements intereseting?
7 Which linguistic means are used to denote evaluativeness and uncertainty of the
newspaper style?
8. Which are intermediary forms of the newspaper style?
9. Compare belle-lettres and colloquail styles

II. Characterise the following headlines:

1. Delhi Police to take complaints on phone, online

2. Indian flag hoisted at Sochi Olympics
3. Pak stops issuing NOCs for screening of Indian films
4. 18 feared killed in Nepal passenger plane crash

56
 III . Identify following extracts. Comment on the style and linguistic elements

1.
Ukraine protesters are vacating city hall in Kiev, the symbolic centre of prolonged anti-
government demonstrations.

The building has been occupied by protesters for more than two months.

The government has promised to drop all charges against demonstrators if they vacate
government buildings and lift roadblocks.

2.

3.

If you think the U.S. education system is doing its job, here’s a statistic to
contemplate: Forty-six percent of Americans believe that humans were created just
6,000 years ago.

In other words, the overwhelming scientific evidence in favor of evolution is flat

wrong.

This alarming, depressing figure comes from a Gallup poll and hasn’t changed much
over the years. In 1982, 44 percent of Americans believed that God created humans
in their current form. The number of Republicans who believe in creationism and

57
 discount evolution has increased since 2009 from 47 percent to 56 percent

4.
I watched thee when the foe was at our side,
Ready to strike at him – or thee and me,
Were safety hopeless – rather than divide
Aught with one loved save love and liberty.

IV Read the following headlines and analyse them:

1. Wal-Mart told to raise German prices

Wal-Mart's European expansion plans suffered their second blow in a week as the German
competition authority ordered the retailer to raise key prices in its German hypermarkets.
2. Prince to buy Kirch pay-TV stake

Prince Al-Valeed of Saudi Arabia plans to buy a 3.2 per cent stake in \ the pay television
operation of German Leo Kirch.
3. Japanese debt downgraded second time

The Japanese government was struck a humiliating blow when Moody's, the US credit rating
agency, downgraded Japan's domestic currency debt for the second time in two years.
4. SAP prices consultancy at top of range

SAP, Europe's largest software group, is likely to price shares in SAP SI, its consultancy, at
the top of its book-building range.
5. Enel subsidiary mulls Infostrada buy

Enel, Italy's main electricity utility, expressed strong interest in its telecommunications
subsidiary, Wind, buying its Italian fixed-line rival, Infostrada.

V State whether the following statemenets are True or False

1. English newspapers were published in the 19th century T F

2. First newspapers were published in the form of short news pamphlets T F
3. The first regular newspaper appeared in 1622 T F
4. The English Media system was developed in the XIX c T F
5. Non-classified advertisements and announcements have fixed essential T F
features.

58
 6. An editorial belongs to the newpaper style only T F
7. Editorials often use emotionally coloured vocabulary T F

VI Circle the correct answer from A, B, C and explain your choice:

1. The first regular newspaper was called
A The Weekly News B The Daily news C The Evening star
2 The first daily newspaper in England was called
A The Weekly Herald B The Weekly Bells C The Daily Courants
3 Newspaper style was formed in England in the …… century.
A XIX c B XVIII C XX

Project Ideas:
1. Compare and contrast the elements of the following: an abstract, editorial, essays. Give
your own examples.
2. Should the newspaper style be singled out as an independent element of the functional
styles?

59
CHAPTER 4
Stylictic Devices and Expressive Means

Denotational and connotatonal meaning of a word

The meaning structure of a word is not homogenous and inludes denotational and
connotational components. The denotation of a word is its explicit definition, objective
reference which makes communication possible. Such meanings are literal, obvious
meanings and usually come in dictionaries first after the word itself. On the other hand, the
expressive or emotive meaning of a word, which adds to the expressiveness of language is
derived from the other type of word meaning—connotational, or set of socio-cultural and
personal that a word usually brings to our mind and which reveals both the emotive charge
and stylistic value of the word. These two components are most important for linguistic and
stylistic analysis. More specifically, it is believed that emotive evaluation is part of the
connotational meaning. On the other hand, denotational meaning does not usually change
easily whereas connotational meanings are subject to changes throughout the sociolinguistic
development of the society. For instance, the word “woman” has the same denotational
th
meaning now as in the 19 century. However, if conduct a componential analysis of its
semantic structure, the situation will be as follows:
A woman of the 19th century: denotational component will include the following
semes: an adult, human, female. Consequently, the denotational semantic structure of this
word will comprise these three compenents. However, when looked at the woman from the
social point of view of the 19th century, the following connotational components may be
singled out: a woman wears a dress, has long hair, works at home and provides food and
cares for the members of the family. The situation will be different from the point of view
of the 21th century European society as neither of the above-mentioned components will be

60
differential to the concept of a woman. Another example of the change of connotation is that
of the word დედაკაცი (mother+ man ) which in the 19th century was a positive idea (see,
for instance Ilya Chavchavadze’s works) and included semantic components of a strong
woman, working with her man as an equal part of the marriage yoke (another metaphor of
the marriage) and taking care of her assigned place and function in the family. However,
today this word has acquired a negative meaning of an uneducated, impolite woman.
Words contain an element of emotive evaluation as part of the connotational meaning. This
feature may be called one of the objective semantic features of words as linguistic units and a
part of the connotational component of meaning. However, emotive evaluation should not
be confused with emotive implications that the words may acquire in speech. (Ginsburg,
1997: 21-23). The emotive implication of the word is, as quite rightly indicated by Ginsburg,
largely subjective as it depends of the personal experience of the speaker and the mental
imagery the word evokes in him. From this standpoint, logically, words seemingly devoid of
any emotional element may possess strong emotive implications to certain speakers. For
instance, if the word „hospital“ may be characterized by certain emotive implications as seen
by an architect who designed it, and by content and dissatisfied patients and their relatives.

Neutral and stylistically marked vocabulary

Stylistic Layers of the language
A lexical system of a language presents the elements which are interconnected, interrelated
and yet independent. It is the domain of Lexicology to classify vocabulary as well as work
out classification criteria for words and wordgroups. For the purpose of linguistic stylistics,
stylistic classification of the lexical system of the language is commonly used. The lexical
inventory of the English language may be divided into three main layers: the literary layer,
the neutral layer and the colloquial layer. Moreover, the literary and the colloquial layers
contain a number of subgroups united by a certain feature or aspect. More specifically, this
unifying and differentiating aspect of the literary layer is its distinctively bookish character
which makes it both stable and easily recognisable. On the other hand, the distinguishing
aspect of the colloquial layer of words is its lively, spoken character. Consequently, compared
with the bookish layer, the latter is less stable and more prone to changes.
Conversely, the neutral layer is universal which means that it is unrestricted in use. As well
as this, it permeates and embraces all styles of the language and extralinguistic, social
domains of human activity. If compared, it can be seen that the literary layer of words
consists of groups with no dialectal character. Unlike this, the colloquial layer of words as
given in most English dictionaries is frequently limited to a definite language community

61
where it circulates. The literary vocabulary consists of the following groups of words: 1)
common literary words; 2) terms and learned words; 3) poetic words; 4) archaic words; 5)
barbarisms & foreign words; 6) literary coinages including nonce words. (Galperin, 1987: 70-
119)
On the other hand, the colloquial vocabulary falls into the following groups: 1) common
colloquial words; 2) slang; 3) jargonisms; 4) professional words; 5) dialectal words; 6) vulgar
words; 7) colloquial coinages. The common literary, neutral and common colloquial words
are grouped under the term “standard English vocabulary”.

Ancient classifications of expressive means

Stylistics borrows a number of terms of its meta-language from ancient rhetoric. As well as
this, rhetoric serves as the initial source of information about such tropes as metaphor,
metonymy, epithet, antithesis, chiasmus, anaphora and many more.
In Ancient Greece mythology and lyrical poetry were employed as didactic material for
education. Therefore, they were used as foundation for oratorical art as well as development
of first philosophical notions and concepts. As rhetoric and oration played a major role in the
social and political life of Ancient Greece, the art of rhetoric developed into an educational
school and science.
The first linguistic theory was referred to as sophistry and was born in V century В. С .
Antique traditions ascribe some of the fundamental rhetorical notions to the Greek
philosopher Gorgius (483-375 В. С). Together with another scholar Trasimachus , he created
the first school of rhetoric whose principles were later developed by Aristotle (384-322 В. С.)
in his books Rhetoric and Poetics.
Ancient authors distinguished speech for practical and aesthetic purposes. Rhetoric dealt
with aesthetics and was supposed to create a high-flown, dramatic effect. This was achieved
by an elaborate, rhythmical arrangement of eloquent speech. Eloquent speech, in turn,
involved the obligatory use of the so-called figures of speech. The quality of rhetoric as an art
of speech was measured in terms of skillful combination, abundance or absence of these
devices. All kinds of speech were respectively labelled and represented in a hierarchy of
oppositions including the following types:
Elevated/ flowery /florid/ exquisite/ poetic versus Normal/Neutral/ dry/ scanty/ hackneyed/
tasteless.
Demetrius of Alexandria (III century ВС) was an Athenian orator, statesman and
Philosopher. He used the theory of Aristotle and singled out the following styles:

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The plain style is a simple style, employing active verbs and easy,simple everyday
vocabulary. Its purposes include lucidity, clarity and familiarity. This style uses few difficult
compounds, coinages or determinants (such as epithets or modifiers). In every way this style
is natural and easyflowing.
The eloquent style, in contrast, uses elaborate techniques to give the narration expressive
power. Sentences here are lengthy, well balanced, with a great deal of pre-thought and
elaborate material. Words can be unusual, coined; meanings can be implied, figurative and
symbolic.
Aristotle differentiated literary language and colloquial language. This first theory of style
included 3 subdivisions:
a) the choice of words;
b) word combinations;
c) figures.
1. The choice of words included lexical expressive means such as foreign words, archaisms,
neologisms, poetic words, nonce words and metaphor.
2. Word combinations involved 3 things:
a) order of words;
b) word-combinations;
c) rhythm and period (in rhetoric, a complete sentence).
3. Figures of speech. This part included only 3 devices used by the antique authors always in
the same order.
a) antithesis;
b) assonance of colons;
c) equality of colons*.
( *A colon in rhetoric means one of the sections of a rhythmical period in Greek chorus
consisting of a sequence of 2 to 6 feet.)
Later contributions by other authors were made into the art of speaking and writing so that
the most complete and well developed antique system that came down to us is called the
Hellenistic Roman rhetoric system. It divided all expressive means into 3 large groups:
Tropes, Rhythm (Figures of Speech) and Types of Speech.
Two centuries later a Greek rhetorician and historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus (I century
ВС) characterized one of the Greek orators in such a way: "His harmony is natural, stately,
spacious, articulated by pauses rather than strongly polished and joined by connectives;
naturally off-balance, not rounded and symmetrical." (Znamenskaya: 123). Interestingly, for

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the Romans a recommended proportion for language units in verse was two nouns and two
adjectives to one verb, which they called the golden line.
Gradually the choices of certain stylistic features in different combinations settled into three
types of style—plain, middle and high. They can be relabeled in today’s terms as colloquial,
neutral and bookish.

Contemporary classifications of Phonetic Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices

Stylistic theory and classification of expressive means by G. Leech

Nowadays there exist several classifications of expressive means of a language based on more
or less similar criteria.
Three of the modern classifications of expressive means in the English language that are
commonly recognized and used in teaching Stylistics today will be discussed further in brief.

One of the first linguists who tried to modernize traditional rhetoric system was a British
scholar Geoffrey Leech. Leech tried to show how linguistic theory could be accommodated
to describe and analyse metaphor, parallelism, alliteration, personification and others based
on the present-day study of literature.
Leech defined literature as the creative use of language and stated that the use of literature
can be referred to as the use of deviant forms of language. According to his theory, the first
principle with which a linguist should approach literature is the degree of generality of
statement about language. There are two particularly important ways in which the
description of language leads to generalization. In the first place, language operates by “
descriptive generalization”. For example, a grammarian may give descriptions of such
pronouns as they, it, him, etc. as objective personal pronouns with the following categories:
first/third person, singular/plural, masculine, non-reflexive, animate/inanimate.
Although they require many ways of description they are all pronouns and each of them may
be explicitly described in this fashion. Consequently, all the classifications of language
categories would fall in this explicit generalised category, as argued by Leech.
The other type of generalization is implicit and can be described in terms of the language and
dialect. This type of description is composed of individual events and cases of speaking,
writing, hearing and reading. From these events generalization may cover the linguistic
behaviour of the whole populations. In this connection Leech underlines the importance of
distinguishing two scales in the language. He calls them register scale and dialect scale.

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Register scale, according to Leech, distinguishes spoken language from the written one, the
language of respect from that of condescension, advertising from science, etc. The term
covers linguistic activity within society.
On the other hand, dialect scale differentiates language of people of different age, sex, social
strata, geographical area or individual linguistic habits (i.e ideolect).
According to Leech, the literary work of a particular author must be studied with reference
to both—dialect scale and register scale.
Clearly, the notion of generality in Leech’s theory of classifying stylistic devices has to do
with linguistic deviation. More specifically, he points out that writers and poets use language
in a flexible way and can afford a certain degree of poetic licence which relates to the scales
of descriptive and institutional delicacy. As an illustration, words like thou, thee, thine, thy
not only involve grammatical description ( for instance, description based on grammatical
categories, such as number and person), but socially, they also have a strangeness value or
connotative value because they are charged with overtones of piety, historical period,
poetics, etc.
On the other hand, as well-noted by the author, the language of literature is generally
characterised by a number of deviant features. Thus Leech builds his classification on the
principle of distinction between the normal and deviant features in the language of
literature.
Among deviant features he distinguishes paradigmatic and syntagmatic deviations . All figures
can be initially divided into syntagmatic or paradigmatic. Linguistic units are connected
syntagmatically when they combine sequentially in a linear linguistic form. For example, she
ate two slices of cake.
Paradigmatic items enter into a system of possible selections at one point of the chain.
Syntagmatic items can be viewed horizontally whereas Paradigmatic items can be dicussed
vertically. Paradigmatic figures give the writer a choice from equivalent items, which are
contrasted to the normal range of choices. For instance, certain nouns can normally be
followed by certain adverbs, the choice dictated by their normal lexical valency:
inches/feet/yard away, e. g. My wife was standing only a few feet away.
However, the author's choice of a noun may upset the normal system and create a
paradigmatic deviation that we come across in literary and poetic language: farmyards away,
a grief ago, all sun long.
The contrast between deviation and norm, as believed by Leech, may be accounted for by
metaphor which involves semantic transfer of combinatory links.

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Another example of paradigmatic deviation is personification. In this case we deal with
purely grammatical oppositions of personal/ impersonal; animate/inanimate; concrete/a+
+bstract.
This type of deviation entails the use of an inanimate noun in a context appropriate to a
personal noun.
As Connie had said, she handled just like any other aeroplane, except that she had better
manners than most. (Shute). In this example she stands for the aeroplane and makes it
personified on the grammatical level. The deviant use of she in this passage is reinforced by
the collocation with better manners, which can only be associated with human beings.
This sort of paradigmatic deviation Leech calls unique deviation because it comes as an
unexpected and unpredictable choice that defies the norm. He compares it with what the
Prague school of linguistics called foregrounding.
Unlike paradigmatic figures based on the effect of gap in the expected choice of a linguistic
form, syntagmatic deviant features result from the opposite. A syntagmatic chain of
language units provides a choice of equivalents to be made at different points in this chain,
but the writer repeatedly makes the same selection.
This principle visibly stands out in some tongue-twisters due to the deliberate overuse of the
same sound in every word of the phrase. So instead of a sentence like "Robert turned over a
hoop in a circle" we have the intentional redundancy of "r" in " Robert Rowley rolled a round
roll round".
All in all, Leeche's approach was an attempt to treat stylistic devices with reference to
linguistic theory that would help to analyse the nature of stylistic function viewed as a result
of deviation from the lexical and grammatical norms of the language.

Galperin's classification of expressive means and stylistic devices

The classification suggested by I. Galperin is simply organised and very detailed. His
fundamental monograph Stylistics 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.
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;

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2) alliteration (initial rhyme): to rob Peter to pay Paul;
3) rhyme
4) rhythm.
The stylistic approach to the utterance is not confined to the investigation of its structure and
sense. There is another thing to be taken into account which in a certain type of
communication plays an important role. This is the way a word, a phrase or a sentence
sounds. The sound of most words taken separately will have little or no aesthetic value. It is
in combination with other words that a word may acquire a desired phonetic effect.
Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is a combination of speech sounds which aims at imitating sounds produced
in nature (wind, sea, thunder, etc.) by things (machines or tools, etc.) by people (singing,
laughter) and animals. Therefore the relation between onomatopoeia and the phenomenon it
is supposed to represent is one of metonymy. There are two varieties of onomatopoeia:
direct and indirect.
Direct onomatopoeia is contained in words that imitate natural sounds, as ding-dong, burr,
bang, cuckoo. These words have different degrees of imitative quality. Some of them
immediately bring to mind whatever it is that produces the sound. Others require the
exercise of a certain amount of imagination to decipher it. Onomatopoetic words can be used
in a transferred meaning, as for instance, ding - dong, which represents the sound of bells
rung continuously, may mean 1) noisy, 2) strenuously contested.
Indirect onomatopoeia demands some mention of what makes the sound, as rustling of
curtains in the following line. And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
(E. A. Poe). Indirect onomatopoeia is a combination of sounds the aim of which is to make
the sound of the utterance an echo of its sense. It is sometimes called "echo writing". For
instance, in the example above the repetition of the sound [s] actually produces the sound of
the rustling of the curtain.
In addition, words based on onomatopoeia may frequenly be found in literature. For
instance, in the following extract from Shakespeare cuckoo means a husband with an
unfaithful wife:
The Cuckoo then, on every tree
Mocks married men: for thus sings he ‘Cuckoo Cuckoo, Cuckoo’.
Oh word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear!
It must be mentioned that poetry abounds in some specific types of sound-instrumenting,
the leading role belonging to alliteration - the repetition of consonants, usually-in the

67
beginning of words, and assonance - the repetition of similar vowels, usually in stressed
syllables. They both may produce the effect of euphony (a sense of ease and comfort in
pronouncing or hearing) or cacophony (a sense of strain and discomfort in pronouncing or
hearing). To create additional information in a prose discourse sound-instrumenting is
seldom used. In contemporary advertising, mass media and, above all, imaginative prose
sound is foregrounded mainly through the change of its accepted graphical representation.
This intentional violation of the graphical shape of a word (or word combination) used to
reflect its authentic pronunciation is called graphon: mispronunciations in the speech of
uneducated people (“peepul”,), merged forms (“gimme” (give me), “gonna” (going to),
mispronunciations which show the physical defects of the speakers: stumbling, lisping;
graphical changes used to convey the intensity of the stress, emphasizing and thus
foregrounding the stressed words, i.e. all changes of the type (italics, capitalization), spacing
of the graphemes (hyphenation, multiplication) and of lines (verse lines organized in “steps”).
Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar sound combinations of words . Rhythm- the
flow of speech presents an alternation of stressed and unstressed elements ; the pattern of
interchange of strong and weak segments is also called rhythm.
Alliteration

Alliteration is a phonetic stylistic device which aims at making a melodic effect to the
utterance. The essence of this device lies in the repetition of similar sounds, in particular
consonant sounds, in close succession, particularly at the beginning of successive words: "
The possessive instinct never stands still” (J. Galsworthy) or, "Deep into the darkness peering,
long I stood there wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to
dream before" (E. A. Poe).
Alliteration, like most phonetic expressive means, does not bear any lexical or other meaning
unless we agree that a sound meaning exists as such. But even so we may not be able to
specify clearly the character of this meaning, and the term will merely suggest that a certain
amount of information is contained in the repetition of sounds, as is the case with the
repetition of lexical units.
Alliteration is frequently used in Rhymes for children, e.g. Mother Goose Nursery rhymes
and poems are abundant in alliteration, that make it easy to memorize them. Below is an
example from the poem ‘Betty Botter’, where alliteration of the sound ‘b’ prevails:
Betty Botter bought some butter,
“But,” she said, “the butter’s bitter;
If I put in my batter,1

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It will make my batter bitter;
But a bit of better butter,
That would make my batter better….

Rhyme
Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar terminal sound combination of words.
Rhyming words are generally placed at a regular distance from each other. In verse they are
usually placed at the end of the corresponding lines.
Identity and similarity of sound combinations may be relative. For instance, we distinguish
between full rhymes and incomplete rhymes. The full rhyme presupposes identity of the
vowel sound and the following consonant sounds in a stressed syllable, including the initial
consonant of the second syllable (in polysyllabic words), we have exact or identical rhymes.
Incomplete rhymes present a greater variety. They can be divided into two main groups:
vowel rhymes and consonant rhymes. In vowel-rhymes the vowels of the syllables in
corresponding words are identical, but the consonants may be different as in flesh - fresh
-press. Consonant rhymes, on the contrary, show concordance in consonants and disparity in
vowels, as in worth - forth, tale - tool -treble - trouble; flung - long.
Modifications in rhyming sometimes go so far as to make one word rhyme with a
combination of words; or two or even three words rhyme with a corresponding two or three
words, as in "upon her honour - won her", "bottom –forgot them- shot him". Also there are
compound or broken rhymes. The peculiarity of rhymes of this type is that the combination
of words is made to sound like one word - a device which inevitably gives a colloquial and
sometimes a humorous touch to the utterance. There is another type of rhyme, an eye -
rhyme, where the letters and not the sounds are identical, as in love - prove, flood - brood,
have - grave. It follows that compound rhyme is perceived in reading aloud, eye - rhyme can
only be perceived in the written verse.

Rhythm
Rhythm exists in all spheres of human activity and assumes many 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 of features" (Webster's New World
Dictionary).
Rhythm can be perceived only provided that there is some kind of experience in catching
regularity of alternating patterns. Rhythm is a periodicity, which requires specification as to

69
the type of periodicity. Inverse rhythm is regular succession of weak and strong stress. A
rhythm in language necessarily demands oppositions that alternate: long, short; stressed,
unstressed; high, low and other contrasting segments of speech.
Zhirmunsky suggests that the concept of rhythm should be distinguished from that of a
metre. Metre is any form of periodicity in verse, it is determined by the character and
number of syllables of which it consists. The metre is a strict regularity, consistency and
unchangeability. Rhythm is flexible and sometimes an effort is required to perceive it. In
classical verse it is perceived at the background of the metre. Rhythm in verse as a Stylistic
Device can be defined as a combination of the ideal metrical scheme and the variations of it
which are governed by some standard.
Rhythm is not a mere addition to verse or emotive prose, which also has its rhythm. Rhythm
is the stylistic device that gives some kind of emotional effect to the verseintensifies the
emotions. It contributes to the general sense. Much has been said and written about rhythm
in prose. Some investigators, in attempting to find rhythmical patterns of prose, superimpose
metrical measures on prose. But the parametres of the rhythm in verse and in prose are
entirely different.

Practice Session
1. Answer the following questions
1. Explain why the elements of the word system are interdependent and independent at the
same time. Give examples
2. How is the division of the word stock into three main layers related to the theory of
functional styles discussed in the lecture 3?
3. Which groups of words does standard vocabulary consist of ?
4. Characterise the school of sophistry.
5. Comment on Demetrius of Alexandria's division of language styles
6. Why was employement of figures of speech necessary in Ancient Greece and Rome?
7. What features made Aristotle's attitude to language styles and features remarkable?
8. Identify and discuss main points of Leech's classifications.
9. What did the Romans call the golden line?
10. Rename three types of the styles actively discussed in ancient times (plain, middle and
high) into modern terms. Justify your choice of words
11. What was the main goal/reason behind Leech's classification?
12. What did Leech mean by implicit and explicit generalazation? Give reasons and
examples.

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13. Why does Leech discuss language and dialect? How does he differentiate between them?
14. Comment on the deviant features Leech points out in his classification, give reasons for
their significance.
15. Justify or disagree with Galperin's reasons beyond singling out three general criteria for
stlistic devices.
16. If you were interested in stylistic classification of vocabulary, which criterion (criteria)
would you use?
17. Compare and contrast onomatopoeia and alliteration
18. What is the difference between full rhymes, incomplete and broken rhymes?
19. Name and define the meaning and types of graphon.
20. What is the difference between euphony and cacaphony?
21. What kind of repetition is rhythm? Rhyme?
22. WHat is the main effect (function) of rhythm?
23. WHat is the difference between a metre and a rhythm?

2. State whethere the following statmenets are True or False:

1. The elements of the system are indepenent and interdepedent T F
2. Sophistry appeared in the VI century BC. T F
3. The appearance of sophistry was associated with practical reasons T F
4. 'Rhetoric' and ''Poetics'' belong to Aristotle T F
5. There were two functions of speech among the Greek philosophers T F
6. Rhythm and eloquence was not expected from an eloquent speech T F
7. Euphony is unpleasant to the ear T F
8. Gonna is an example of the graphon T F
9. Ding-dong is indirect onomatopoeia T F
1 Sound repetition gives some importance to sounds T F
0
1 Rhyme is the repetition of identical sounds T F
1
1 In a rhyme observance of regular intervals is crucial T F
2
1 Rhythm can be defined as periodicity T F
3
1 Inverse rhythm means regular succession of weak and strong stress T F
4
1 In accented verse rhythm is measured by the number of stresses in a T F
5 line

71
 1 Rythm cannot itensify the emotions T F
6
1 The parametres of rhythm in verse differ from those in prose T F
7

3. Circle the correct version from A, B and C.

1. Who suggested the difference between a metre and rhythm?
A Zhirmunsky B Arnold C Ginsburg
2 …………… is flexible.
A Metre B Rhythm C Accent
3 Mooo is a ............. .
A direct onomtoapoeia B indirect C alliteration
onomatopoeia
4 Which of these can have its own meaning?
A alliteration B Onomatopoeia C none of these
5 Which of these is based on deliberate mispronunciation.
A onomatopoeia B Alliteration C graphon

3. Project Ideas
1. Discuss cultural value of onomatopoeia
2. Compare rhythmic patterns Georgian and English
3. Discuss the value and function of alliteration in Georgian and English
4. Analyse rhythmic patterns of verse in English and Georgian.

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CHAPTER 5
Semantic and Syntactical Stylistic Devices and Expressive Means

Galperin's classification of stylistic devices and expressive means (continued)

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 based on the interaction of different
types of a word meanings f a certain word: dictionary, contextual, derivative, nominal, and
emotive.
The stylistic effect of the lexical means, in this case, is achieved through the binary
opposition of dictionary versus contextual or logical versus emotive or primary versus
derivative meanings of a word.
A.The first group includes means based on the interplay of dictionary and contextual
meanings:

73
 Metaphor is a transference of names based on the associated likeness between two objects,
on the similarity of one feature common to two different entities, on possessing one common
characteristic, on linguistic semantic nearness, on a common component in their semantic
structures. e.g. ”pancake” for the “sun” (round, hot, yellow); e.g. ”silver dust” and “sequins”
for “stars” ( silvery, bright, twinkling and glowing). Another example: Dear Nature is the
kindest Mother still. (Byron) (mother takes care of their children in the same way the nature
does).
Metonymy is a transference of names based on contiguity (nearness), on extra-linguistic,
actually existing relations between the phenomena (objects), denoted by the words, on
common grounds of existence in reality but different semantic. . e.g. ”cup” and “tea” in “ Will
you have another cup?”; The camp, the pulpit and the law; For rich man's sons are free.
(Shelly)
Irony is a stylistic device in which the contextual evaluative meaning of a word is directly
opposite to its dictionary meaning, typically used for humorous or emphatic effect. The
context is arranged so that the qualifying word in irony reverses the direction of the
evaluation, and the word positively charged is understood as a negative qualification and
(much-much rarer) vice versa. The context varies from the minimal – a word combination to
the context of a whole book. e.g. It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country
without a penny in one’s pocket; I am so happy and thrilled to learn that I have failed all the
exams for GCSE.
Irony can be of three kinds: verbal irony is a type of irony when it is possible to indicate the
exact word whose contextual meaning diametrically opposes its dictionary meaning, in
whose meaning we can trace the contradiction between the said and implied (e.g. She turned
with the sweet smile of an alligator . It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country
without a penny in one's pocket.
Dramatic irony happens when a reader or viewer knows more information that a character
in book or in a movie; Situational irony is a kind of joke that is against a specific person or
situation.

B. The Stylistic devices based on the interaction of primary and derivative meanings:
Pun. This term is synonymous with the current expression 'play upon words'. The semantic
essence of the device is based on polysemy or homonymy. e.g. Is life worth living? It depends
on the liver. ( liver-one who lives and an organ of the body).
Alongside the English term 'pun', the international (originally French) term calembour is
current. I like kids but I cannot eat more than one.

74
Puns are used in epitaphs. For instance, in the epitaph from Ruidoso, New Mexico cemetery,
it is basd on the interplay of the meanings of the word Yeast used as a name and “a type of
fungus that is used in making alcoholic drinks such as beer and wine, and for making bread
swell and become light” (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/yeast).
Here lies
Johnny Yeast
Pardon me
For not rising.
Zeugma. Аs with the pun, this device consists of combiniation of unequal, semantically
heterogeneous, or even incompatible, words or phrases. It is considered to be a figure of
speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses.
Zeugma is а kind of economy of syntactical units: one unit (word, phrase) makes а
combination with two or several others without being repeated itself: "She dropped а tear
and her pocket handkerchief." (Dickens); May's mother always stood on her gentility; and
Dot's mother never stood on anything but her active little feet. (Dickens ) He came into the
room and her heart.
C. The third group comprises means based on the opposition of logical and emotive
meanings:
Interjections and exclamatory words: Interjection is a word with strong emotive meaning.
The pauses that frame interjections can be accounted for by the sudden transfer from the
emotional to the logical or vice versa. Further, the definite intonation with which
interjections are pronounced depends on the sense of the preceding or following sentence.
Interjections have no sentence meaning if taken independently. Oh, where are you going to,
all you Big Steamers? (Kipling). The interjection Oh by itself may express various feelings,
such as regret, despair, disappointment, sorrow, woe, surprise, astonishment, lamentation,
entreaty and many others. Here it precedes a definite sentence and must be regarded as a part
of it. It denotes the ardent tone of the question. The Oh here may be regarded, to use the
terminology of theory of information, as a signal indicating emotional tension.
Epithet is an adjective or an adjective phrase appropriately qualifying a subject (noun) by
naming a key or important characteristic of the subject. Semantically, epithets can be: 1.
metaphorical (lazy road, ragged noise), 2. Metonymical (brainy fellow), 3. Ironic.
Structurally, epithets may be: 1. Preposition, one-word epithet (a nice way); 2. Postposition,
one-word or hyperbolation (the eyes watchful); 3. Two-step (immensely great); 4. Phrase (a
go-to-hell look); 5. Inverted (a brute of a dog, a monster of a man).

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Sometimes epithets with figurative meaning are referred to as “transferred”: 3
e.g. Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold / A sheep hook.
In an age of pressurized happiness, we sometimes grow insensitive to subtle joys.
The transferred epithet can be used to introduce emphatically an idea that an author plans to
develop.
Oxymoron is a combination of two semantically contradictory notions, that help to
emphasise contradictory qualities simultaneously existing in the described phenomenon as a
dialectical unity. e.g. ”low skyscraper”, “sweet sorrow”, “nice rascal”, “pleasantly ugly face ”.
peopled desert, populous solitude, proud humility. (Byron)

Stylistic devices 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 is an imaginative comparison of two unlike objects belonging to two different classes
on the grounds of similarity of some quality. .e.g . She is like a rose.. Simile is an explicit
statement of partial identity (affinity, likeness, similarity) of two objects. The word identity is
only applicable to certain features of the objects compared: in fact, the objects cannot be
identical; they are only similar, they resemble each other due to some identical features. А
simile has manifold forms, semantic features and expressive aims. Аs already mentioned, а
simile may be combined with or accompanied by another stylistic device, or it may achieve
one stylistic effect or another. Thus it is often based on exaggeration of properties described
treacherous as a snake, faithful as a dog, slow as a tortoise.
Periphrasis is a device which denotes the use of a longer phrase in place of a possible
shorter and plainer form of expression. e.g. The lamp-lighter made his nightly failure in
attempting to brighten up the street with gas. [= lit the street lamps\] (Dickens) One and the
same object may be identified in different ways and accordingly acquire different
appellations. Thus, in different situations a certain person can be denoted, for instance, as
either 'his benefactor', or 'this bore', or 'the narrator', or 'the wretched witness', etc. These
names will be his only in a short fragment of the discourse, the criterion of their choice

3
Hypallage (/haɪˈpælədʒiː/; from the Greek: ὑπαλλαγή, hypallagḗ, "interchange, exchange") is a figure of speech in
which the syntactic relationship between two terms is interchanged,[1] or—more frequently—a modifier is
syntactically linked to an item other than the one that it modifies semantically. The latter type of hypallage, typically
resulting in the implied personification of an inanimate or abstract noun, is also called a transferred epithet
examples:
. • "restless night" — The night was not restless, but the person who was awake through it was.
• "happy morning" — Mornings have no feelings, but the people who awaken to them do

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being furnished by the context, e.g. a gentleman of the long robe (a lawyer); the fair sex.
(women).
Euphemism as is known, is a word or phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or
expression by a conventionally more acceptable one, for example, the word 'to die' has bred
the following euphemisms: to pass away, to expire, to be no more, to depart, to join the
majority, to begone, and the more facetious ones: to kick the bucket, to give up the ghost, to
go west. So euphemisms are synonyms which aim at producing a deliberately mild effect.
In private I should call him a liar. In the Press you should use the words: 'Reckless disregard
for truth'. (Galsworthy)
Hyperbole is a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of a feature essential (unlike
periphrasis) to the object or phenomenon (Galperin). It does not signify the actual state of
affairs in reality, but presents the latter through the emotionally coloured perception and
rendering of the speaker. e.g. My vegetable love should grow faster than empires. (Marvell);
e.g. I was scared to death when he entered the room. (Salinger)The earth was made for
Dombey and Son to trade in and the sun and the moon were made to give them light.
(Dickens)

Stylistic devices based on stable word combinations : the interaction of stable word
combinations in the context:
A cliché is generally defined as an expression that has become hackneyed and trite. "A cliché
has lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long over-use..." (Random House Dictionary);
clockwork precision, crushing defeat, the whip and carrot policy .
Proverbs and sayings have certain purely linguistic features which must always be taken into
account in order to distinguish them from ordinary sentences. Proverbs are brief statements
showing in a condensed form the accumulated life experience of the community and serving
as conventional practical symbols for abstract ideas. They are usually didactic and image
bearing. Through frequency of repetition many of them have become polished and wrought
into verse-like shape, as in the following: "to cut one's coat according to one's cloth." "Early
to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."
An epigram is a stylistic device akin to a proverb, the only difference being that epigrams
are coined by individuals whose names we know, while proverbs are the coinage of the
people. In other words, we are always aware of the parentage of an epigram and therefore,
when using one, we usually make a reference to its author.
Epigrams are terse, witty, pointed statements, showing the ingenious turn of mind of the
originator. They always have a literary-bookish air about them that distinguishes them from

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proverbs.
Epigrams have a generalizing function and are self-sufficient. The most characteristic feature
of an epigram is that the sentence gets accepted as a word-combination and often becomes
part of the language as a whole. Like proverbs, epigrams can be expanded to apply to
abstract notions (thus embodying different spheres of application). Brevity is the essential
quality of the epigram.
Epigrams are often confused with aphorisms and paradoxes. It is difficult to draw a
demarcation line between them, the distinction being very subtle. Other features which
make epigrams similar to proverbs, i.e. rhythm, alliteration and often rhyme. It cannot be
expanded to other spheres of life, it does not generalize. "A God that can be understood is no
God. A thing of beauty is a joy for ever. (Keats)4
A quotation is a repetition of a phrase or statement from a book, speech and the like used by
way of authority, illustration, proof or as a basis for further speculation on the matter in
hand. Quotations are usually marked off in the text by inverted commas (“ ”), dashes (—),
italics or other graphical means. They are mostly used accompanied by a reference to the
author of the quotation, unless he is well known to the reader or audience. The reference is
made either in the text or in a foot-note and assumes various forms, as, for instance:
Ecclesiastes said, 'that all is vanity'. (Byron)
An allusion is an indirect reference, by word or phrase, to a historical literary, mythological,
biblical fact or to a fact of everyday life made in the course of speaking or writing. The use of
allusion presupposes knowledge of the fact, thing or person alluded to on the part of the
reader or listener. As a rule no indication of the source is given. This is one of the notable
differences between quotation and allusion. Another difference is of a structural nature: a
quotation must repeat the exact wording of the original even though the meaning may be
modified by the new context; an allusion is only a mention of a word or phrase which may
be regarded as the key-word of the utterance. An allusion has certain important semantic
features, in that the meaning of the word (the allusion) should be regarded as a form for the
new meaning. So, here there is also a kind of interplay between two meanings. Shakespeare
talks of the herald Mercury. (Byron).
Decomposition of set phrases: Idioms and set phrases can be decoded only from the
combination as a whole, as to pull a person's leg or to have something at one's finger tips. The
meaning of the whole cannot be derived from the meanings of the constituent parts. The
stylistic device of Decomposition of set phrases/idioms consists of reviving the independent
4
Endymion is a poem by John Keats first published in 1818 by Taylor and Hessey of Fleet Street in London. It
begins with the line "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever". Endymion is written in rhyming couplets in iambic
pentameter (also known as heroic couplets).

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meanings which make up the component parts of the fusion. In other words, it makes each
word of the combination acquire its literal meaning which, of course, in many cases leads to
the realization of an absurdity. In the sentence "It was raining cats and dogs, and two kittens
and a puppy landed on my window-sill" (Chesterton) the fusion 'to rain cats and dogs' is
freshened by the introduction of "kittens and a puppy," which changes the unmotivated
combination into a metaphor which in its turn is sustained.
Paradox is a statement that appears to be self-contradictory or silly, but which may include a
latent truth. It is also used to illustrate an opinion or statement contrary to accepted
traditional ideas. A paradox is often used to make a reader think over an idea in innovative
way. https://literarydevices.net/paradox/
For example: Truth is honey, which is bitter
I can resist anything but temptation.( Oscar Wilde).

Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices

Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices are not paradigmatic but syntagmatic or, in
other words, structural means. In defining syntactical devices Galperin proceeds from the
following thesis: the structural elements have their own independent meanings which may
affect the lexical meaning. In doing so it may give a contextual meaning to some of the
lexical units.
The principal criteria for classifying syntactical stylistic devices are as follows:
● 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
Chiasmus is referred to as reversed parallelism. The second part of the chiasmus is, in fact,
inversion of the first construction. Thus, if the first sentence (clause) has a direct word order
– SPO*, the second one will have it inverted - OPS. Like parallel constructions, chiasmus
contributes to the rhythmical quantity of the utterance, and the pause caused by this change
in the syntactical pattern of chiasmus may be likened to a caesura in prosody. In the days of
old men made manners. Manners now make men. (Byron)

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Repetition is an expressive means of language used when the speaker is under the stress of
some strong emotions. For glances beget ogles, ogles sighs, sighs wishes, wishes words, and
words a letter. (Byron)
Repetition shows the state of a speaker. As a Stylistic Device, repetition is the recurrence of
the same word, word combination or phrase for two and more times. According to the place
which repeated unit occupies in the sentence (utterance), repetition is classified as follows:
Anaphora is the repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of successive phrases,
clauses or sentences, commonly in conjunctions with climax and with parallelism (a…, a…).
e.g.: Slowly and grimly they advanced, not knowing what lay ahead, not knowing what they
find at the top of the hill.
Epistrophe (also called antistrophe or epiphora) forms the counterpart to anaphora, because
the repetition of the same word or words comes at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or
sentences (…a,…a). e.g.: I wake up and I’m alone and I walk round Warley and I’m alone;
and I talk with people and I’m alone and I look at his face when I’m home and it’s dead.
(J.Braine)
5
Amplification involves repeating a word or expression while adding more detail to it, in
order to emphasize what might otherwise be passed over. e.g.: Pride – boundless pride – is
the bone of civilisation.
Inversion which was briefly mentioned in the definition of the chiasmus is very often used as
an independent SD in which the direct word order is changed either completely or partially.
In the former case, the predicate (predicative) precedes the subject whereas in the latter
case, when the object precedes the subject-predicate pair. Correspondingly, we differentiate
between partial and a complete inversion. The stylistic device of inversion should not be
confused with grammatical inversion which is a norm in interrogative constructions. Stylistic
inversion deals with the rearrangement of the normative word order. Questions may also be
rearranged: "Your mother is at home?" asks one of the characters of J. Baldwin's novel. The
inverted question presupposes the answer with more certainty than the normative one. It is
the assuredness of the speaker of the positive answer that constitutes additional information
which is brought into the question by the inverted word order. Interrogative constructions
with the direct word order may be viewed as cases of two-step (double) inversion: direct w/o
—» grammatical inversion —» direct w/o.
A tone of most extravagant comparison Miss Tox said it in. (Dickens)
Down dropped the breeze. (Coleridge)

5
(SPO) – Subject, Predicate, Object; OPS – Object, predicate, Subject

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Parallel constructions may be viewed as a purely syntactical type of repetition for here we
deal with the reiteration of the structure of several successive sentences (clauses), and not of
their lexical "flesh". Parallel constructions usually include lexical repetition, and such a
convergence produces a very strong effect or foregrounding of several aspects of the
utterance (logical, rhythmic, emotive and expressive). However, the necessary differentiating
condition in parallel constructions is identical or similar structure in two or more sentences
or parts of a sentence. As it has been mentioned, parallel constructions are often backed up
by repetition of words (lexical repetition) and conjunctions and prepositions (polysyndeton).
There are two main functions of parallel constructions: semantic (suggest equal semantic
significance of the component parts) and structural (rhythmical design to these component
parts).
The seeds ye sow—another reaps, The robes ye weave—another wears The arms ye forge—
another bears. (Shelley)
Enumeratiоп is a stylistic device by which separate things, objects, phenomena, properties,
actions 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. Most of our notions are
associated with other notions due to some kind of relation between them: dependence, cause
and result, likeness, dissimilarity, sequence, experience (personal and/or social), proximity,
etc. The principle production of these towns... appear to be soldiers, sailors, Jews, chalk,
shrimps, officers, and dock-yard men. (Dickens)
Suspense is a compositional device which consists of arranging the matter of a
communication in such a way that the less important, descriptive, subordinate parts are
amassed at the beginning, the main idea being withheld till the end of the sentence. Thus the
reader's attention is held and his interest kept up, for example:
"Mankind, says a Chinese manuscript, which my friend M. was obliging enough to read and
explain to me, for the first seventy thousand ages ate their meat raw." (Charles Lamb)
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. (Byron)
Climax (gradation of emphatic growing in strength, in Greek means “ladder”) is a figure of
speech that orders phrases or words in increasing importance, i.e. it consists of arranging
words, clauses, or sentences in the order of increasing importance, weight or emphasis. e.g:
What differences if it rained, hailed blew, snowed, cycloned?
As it can be seen, the second element surpasses the first and is in its turn, surpassed by the
third, and so on. To put it otherwise, the first element is the weakest (though not necessarily

81
weak); the subsequent elements gradually increase in strength, the last being the strongest.
climax: They looked at hundred of houses, they climbed thousands of stairs, they inspected
innumerable kitchens. (Maugham)
Anti-climax (Bathos) – instead of a few elements growing in intensity without relief there
unexpectedly appears a weak or contrastive element that makes the statement humorous or
ridiculous). E.g.: the woman who could face the very devil himself or a mouse – goes all to
pieces in front of a flash of lightning. This stylistic device is characterized bу sоmе authors as
'back gradation'.
А real anti-climax is а sudden deception of the recipient: it consists in adding one weaker
element to one or several strong ones, mentioned before. The recipient is disappointed in his
expectations: he predicted а stronger element to follow; instead, some insignificant idea
follows the significant one (ones). Needless to say, anti-climax is employed with а humorous
aim. For example, in It's а bloody lie and not quite true , we see the absurdity of mixing up
an offensive statement with а polite remark
Antithesis: stylistic opposition, which is given a special name, the term antithesis, is based on
the opposition which arises out of the context through the expansion of objectively
contrasting pairs, as in: Youth is lovely, age is lonely; Youth is fiery, age is frost.
(Longfellow); A saint abroad, and a devil at home." (Bunyan). Generally, two types of
opposition should be distingushed: logical opposition and stylistic opposition. An opposition
is usually based on the contrasting features of two objects. These contrasting features are
represented in pairs of words which we call antonyms, provided that all the properties of the
two objects in question may be set one against another, as 'saint' —'devil', 'reign'—'serve',
'hell'—'heaven'. In addition, many word-combinations are built up by means of contrasting
pairs, as up and down, inside and out, from top to bottom and the like. For instance, "Youth
is lovely, age is lonely, Youth is fiery, age is frosty;" (Longfellow)
Here the objectively contrasted pair is 'youth' and 'age'. 'Lovely' and 'lonely' cannot be
regarded as objectively opposite concepts, but being drawn into the scheme contrasting
'youth' and 'age', they Asyndeton display certain features which may be counted as
antonymical. This is strengthened also by the next line where not only 'youth' and 'age' but
also 'fiery' and 'frosty' are objective antonyms.
Thus, it is not only the semantic aspect which explains the linguistic nature of antithesis, the
structural pattern also plays an important role. Antithesis is generally presented in parallel
constructions. This is because the antagonistic features of the two objects or phenomena are
more easily perceived when they stand out in similar structures. This is particularly
advantageous when the antagonistic features are not inherent in the objects in question but

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imposed on them.

Devices based on the type of connection

These devices include Asyndeton which consists of omitting conjunctions between words,
phrases, or clauses. In a list of items, asyndeton gives the effect of unpremeditated
multiplicity, of an improvised and not a laboured account.
Asyndeton helps to create the effect of terse, energetic, active prose. e.g. Soames turned
away; he had an utter disinclination for talk, like one standing before an open grave,
watching a coffin slowly lowered. (Galsworthy)
Polysyndeton is a repeated use of conjunctions. The rhetorical effect of polysyndeton,
however, often shares with that of asyndeton a feeling of multiplicity, energetic,
enumeration and building up. e.g. By the time he had got all the bottles and dishes and
knives and forks and glasses and plates and spoons and things piled up on big trays, he was
getting very hot, and red in the face, and annoyed. (A.Tolkien) The heaviest rain, and snow,
and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. (Dickens)
Figures based on the specific use of colloquial constructions
Ellipsis is a typical phenomenon in conversation, arising out of the situation. 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.
Thus the sentences 'See you to-morrow.', 'Had a good time?', 'Won't do.', 'You say that?' are
typical of the colloquial language. Nothing is omitted here. These are normal syntactical
structures in the spoken language and to call them elliptical, means to judge every sentence
structure according to the structural models of the written language. Likewise, such
sentences as the following can hardly be called elliptical. There's many a man in this
Borough would be glad to have the blood that runs in my veins." (Cronin)
Aposiopesis (break-in-the-narrative) is another figure of speech , describing a situation when
a sentence or an utterance is deliberately broken off and left unfinished, and thus leaving
the ending to the imagination.: Good intentions but -; You just come home or I'll...
Question in the narrative: Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be
otherwise? (Dickens)

Practice Session

83
 Answer the following questions:
1. What is the difference between the situaional irony and dramatic irony?
2. Discuss differences between a simile and an epithet. Give your own examples
3. Discuss differences between a metaphor and a simile. Give your own examples
4. Why is zeugma called an ''economical'' device? Give your own examples
5. Discuss differences between metaphor and metonymy. Give your own examples
6. Discuss differences between an oxymoron and epithet. Give own examples
7. Can an iterjection be polysemnatic? Give your own examples
8 . What can be the relation between the primary and contextual meanings of one and the
same word? What stylistic devices can this relation give birth to? Provide examples.
9. Discuss differences between a cliche and an epithet
10. Discuss differences between a proverb and an epigram. Give your own examples
11. Discuss differences between an allusion and a quotation. GIve your own examples
12. Characterise decomposition of set phrases/idioms
13. Discuss differences between oxymoron and antithesis. Provide your own examples.
14 . Which stylistic devices are connected with conjunctions? Provide your own examples.

2. State whether the following is True or False:

1. Anti-climax and Bathos denote one and the same phenomenon. T F
2. Asyndeton means having a number of conjunctions in a sentence. T F
3. Asyndeton and polysyndeton share the rhetoric effect on the reader. T F
4. Anaphora and Epistrophe are types of repetition. T F
5. Stylistic and grammatical inversions denote one and the same T F
structure .
6. Contextual meaning is always connected with the primary meaning. T F
7. Question in the narrative is a type of ellipsis. T F

3. Circle the correct version from A, B, C and justify your answer:

1 The structure which includes the reversed first construction as its second part is
. called:
A metaphor B metonymy C chiasmus
2 Which of the following involves repetition of words or phrases?
A Epipohra B Anaphora C Amplification
3 Parallel constructions include:
A syntactical and lexical B syntactical C lexical repetitions
repetitions repetitions
4 Which of these means a deliberate omission of conjuncitons?

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 A Polysyndeton B Asyndeton C Simile
5 ......................... is a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of a feature essential
to the
object or phenomenon.
A Hyperbole B Paraphrasis C Chiasmus
6 Which of these consists of arranging words, clauses, or sentences in the order of
.
increasing importance, weight or emphasis?
A bathos B anticlimax C climax

3. Parallel constructions include:

(1) Tick-tock, tick-tock,

Merrily sings the clock.

It’s time for work,

It’s time for play,

So it sings

Throughout the day.

Tick-tock, tick-tock,

Merrily sings the clock.

2
We felt dreary and dismal in the darkness of the night.
3.
1. My new dress is as pink as this flower:
2. Ruby lips,
3. hair of gold,
4. snow-white skin

4. Find Stylistic Devices in the following sonnet by W. Shakespeare's Sonnet 130

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

85
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

5. Identify and comment on the folowing CDs

The Pond for the Atliantic Ocean
The conflict for the Georgian-Abkhasian war of the 1990s
The snow is a white blanket
The snow is like a white blanket

Many are called but few are chosen

ONe small step for a man , one giant leap for a mankind
Absent presence
Bitter sweet
The wind howled in the sky
My flowers are begging for water
My camera loves her for her beauty
And the skin on her face was thin and drawn tight like the skin on an onion and her eyes
were sharp and grey lke the points of ice picks
The suitcase weighed a ton
Burning fire
Cash money
End result
Invited guests

"And I am sinking
The last thing that I think
Is did I pay my rent?"'

The WHite House condemned the actions of Russia in Ukraine

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Define the meaning of interjections in the following:
All present life is but an interjection
An 'Oh' or 'Ah' of joy or misery,
Or a 'Ha! ha!' or 'Bah!'-a yawn or 'Pooh!'
Of which perhaps the latter is most true.
(Byron)

epithet: a well-matched, fairly-balanced give-and-take couple. (Dickens)

Come! he said, milk's spilt. (Galsworthy)
'speaking realization', 'growing awareness', 'rising expectations', 'to think unthinkable
thoughts'
You know which side the law's buttered. (Galsworthy)\
"Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven." (Milton)

"There Harold gazes on a work divine,

A blending of all beauties; streams and dells,
Fruit, foliage, crag, wood, cornfield, mountain, vine
And chiefless castles breathing stern farewells
From grey but leafy walls, where Ruin greenly dwells." (Byron)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of
foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, if was the season of
Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven,
we are all going direct the other way..." (Dickens)

"Nothing so difficult as a beginning."

"Denotes how soft the chin which bears his touch."
“The earth is crying-sweet,
And scattering-bright the air,
Eddying, dizzying, closing round,
With soft and drunken laughter” ( Rupert Brooke)

I must be cruel to be kind.( Shakespeare)

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field ( The Bible).

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 His head and hair were white like wool, as white a snow, and his eyes were like burning
fire.”( The Bible)

CHAPTER 6
Contemporary Theories of Metaphor

It is a common knowledge that lexical items may acquire additional lexical meanings in the
context. These meanings are not necessarily fixed in the dictionaries but acquired in the
context and referred to as contextual meanings. In some cases, contextual meanings may
even deviate from the dictionary meaning so that the new, contextual meaning may become
the opposite of the primary, literal meaning.
Contextual meanings which are employed for a considerable time and are later fixed in
dictionaries are classed as transferred meanings. In the case of transferred meanings we mean
the development of the semantic structure of the word and not contextual meaning of a
lexical item. If and when we perceive two meanings of the word simultaneously, we are
confronted with a stylistic device in which the two meanings interact.In many cases, this
process gives birth to metaphors.

Imagery

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In philosophy the term "image" denotes the result of reflection of the object of reality in
man's consciousness. Consequently, imagery is referred to as visually descriptive or
figurative language, especially in a literary work.
Generally, trope is considered to be a rhetorical figure of speech that is based on a play on
words. Tropes comes from the Greek word “ tropos” which means a “turn”. Perhaps the
ancient Greek believed that in the case of a trope a meaning of the word turned away from
its normal meaning into something else. Tropes are considered to generate 'imagery' with
connotations over and above any literal meaning. When employing a trope , the utterance
becomes part of a much larger system of associations which is beyond one’s control.
Tropes include epithet, metaphor, metonymy, oxymoron, periphrasis, personification, simile,
etc. We have already characterised majority of tropes ( in Chapter 5). In this Chapter we
will concentrate on the Conceptual theory of metaphor by Lacoff and Johnson which
contributed greatly to the enhancement of the theory of metaphor .

The structure of metaphor. Types of metaphor

Metaphor can be defined as a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an

object or action to which it is not literally applicable. From this point of view, metaphors
involve semantic transfer based on the associated likeness or similarity between two
objects. For instance, Juliet is the sun.
There is always some connection between the two planes of metaphor. For instance, in the
extended metaphor “The sun was a toddler insistently refusing to go to bed: It was past eight
thirty and still light.” (John Green). The sun is compared to a toddler who does not want to
go to bed. The link between the toddler and the Sun can be traced as follows: stubborness,
disobedience- the sun does not want to set ( and go to bed).
The wider is the gap between the associated objects the more striking and unexpected – the
more expressive – is the metaphor. e.g. His voice was a dagger of corroded brass. (S. Lewis);
e.g. They walked alone, two continents of experience and feeling, unable to communicate.
(W.S.Gilbert).
Consequently, metaphors, like all SDs can be classified according to their degree of
unexpectedness. Thus metaphors which are absolutely unexpected, i.e. are quite
unpredictable, are called genuine or poetic, unconventional metaphors. On the contrary,
those metaphors which are commonly used in speech and are sometimes even fixed in
dictionaries as expressive means of language are referred to as trite, dead or conventional
metaphors. Metaphor can be classified according to the length of the CD. For instance, a

89
sustained metaphor is a group (cluster) of metaphors, each supplying another feature of the
described phenomenon to present an elaborated image. “All the world’s a stage, and all the
men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in
his time plays many parts.”( William Shakespeare).

Conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) by Lakoff and Johnson

The conceptual metaphor thesis, introduced in Lakoff and Jonson’s book in 1980 (Metaphors
We Live By) has found applications in a number of academic disciplines. This theory is also
referred to as Cognitive metaphor theory (CMT). According to CMT, metaphor is not
limited to literary texts but is much more powerful instrument of cognition. This happens
because metaphors have entailments that organize our experience, express that experience,
and create necessary realities. On the basis of this, Lakoff and Johnson worked out a new
approach to the theory of metaphor which they called a Conceptual Theory of Metaphor.
Specifically, the authors maintain that “many of our activities (arguing, solving problems,
budgeting time, etc.) are metaphorical in nature. The metaphorical concepts that
characterize these activities structure our present reality. New metaphors have the power to
create a new reality.” According to the authors, corporate managers tend to view their
companies as being in a race — be it for success, market share, revenues, or survival. That
metaphor influences the way they see the world and the way they manage their companies.
To quote Lakoff and Johnson further: “We understand a statement as being true in a given
situation when our understanding of the statement fits our understanding of the situation
closely enough for our purposes.”; “…metaphors partially structure our everyday experience
and this structure is reflected in our literal language”
A basic definition of metaphor is that it is the practice of talking about one thing if it were
another, on the grounds that there are some notional similarities between the two intities.
The following simple example clearly illustrates a prototypical metaphor:
Death's a debt that eveybody owes (Harrison, 1975)
Using the terms of traditional rhetoric, death is a tenor of the metaphor ( i.e. that which is
being discussed, whereas a debt is the vehicle. Clearly, the meaning conveyed here is that
death has some of the qualities associated with debts-perhaps in the sense of being unwished
for, being something inevitable or something to be feared of. These are what traditional
rhethoric would refer to as grounds for comparison. Leech (1969: 156) describes the
metaphor as ''covert comparison'' whereas the simile is the ''overt comparison'' as here the
compaison between two objects is made explicit.

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Cognitive metaphor theory provides a means of describing and explaining the prevalence of
conventional linguistic metaphors in all discourse types. However, it does not ignore the fact
that the more obvious types of metaphor typically are found in literary language. The new
and unusual metaphors often found in poetry may be explained using the same principle as
cognitive metaphor theory uses to explain conventional linguistic metaphors. Underlying all
uncommon linguistic metaphors will be a novel conceptual metaphor. Again though novel
metaphors are not restricted to literary language and as with the examples of conventional
metaphor, using a novel conceptual metaphor reveals somethng of the way in which the user
conceptualises the world.

Types of metaphors (according to Lakoff and Johnson)

1. Orientational metaphors relating mainly to spatial organisation (up and down, front and
back, in and out, near for, etc.)
2. Ontological metaphors, associate with activity, motions – personification
3. Structural metaphors overarching metaphors (building on the above two types) which
allow us to structure one concept in terms of another (argument is war, life is a journey, etc.)
Lakoff and Johnson distunguish a number of different types of conceptual metaphor. To
illustarte this, below there are several extracts from the book by Lakoff and Johnson
“Metaphors that we live by” :

METAPHORICAL CONCEPTS
If anything is central to Cognitive Science, it is the nature of the human conceptual system.
We have found that that system is fundamentally metaphorical in character. That is, it
contains metaphorical as well as non-metaphorical concepts, and the metaphorical structure
is extremely rich and complex. Non-metaphorical concepts are those that emerge directly
from our experience and are defined in their own terms. These include at least (1) spatial
orientations (e.g., Up- DOWN, IN-OUT, NEAR-FAR, FRONT-BACK), (2) ontological
concepts arising in physical experience (e.g., ENTITY, SUBSTANCE, CONTAINER,
PERSON), and (3) structured experiences and activities (e. g. EATING, MOVING,
TRANSFERRING OBJECTS FROM PLACE TO PLACE, etc.).
Metaphorical concepts are those which are understood and structured not merely on their
own terms, but rather in terms of other concepts. This involves conceptualizing one kind of
object or experience in terms of a different kind of object or experience.

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Paralleling the kinds of non-metaphorical concepts, there are roughly three types of
metaphorical concepts, which are realized by a vast number of linguistic expressions:
The Conduit metaphor
Much of our metalinguistic capability uses what has been referred to as the conduit
metaphor. As the authors believe, the speaker puts ideas (objects) and sends them (along a
conduit) to a hearer who takes the idea/objects out of the word/containers. The conduit
metaphor is thus an overarching metaphor for the following conceptual metaphors:
Ideas and meanings are objects
Linguistic expressions are containers
I am finding it difficult to put my ideas into words
You have given me an idea!
What the teacher said carried little meaning
You need to get your ideas across if you are successful.
(2) Orientational Metaphors
The metaphors that we have discussed above are classed as structural metaphors as they
structure once concept in terms of another. Orientational metaphors are different in that
they provide a concept with a spatial orientation, rather than structuring a concept in terms
of another. In other words, these metaphors structure concepts linearly, orienting them with
respect to non-metaphorical linear orientations. The category of orientaitonal metaphors
begins to explain many otherwise odd expressions that we commonly use in language. Why
do we talk about being in high spirits when we are happy but feeling down when we are
depressed? Why do we talk about climbing a career ladder or being at the bottom of the
class? The answer to these questions are to be found in the following conceptual metaphors:

MORE IS UP
The number of books printed each year keeps going up.
You made a high number of mistakes.
My income rose last year. The amount of artistic activity in this state has gone down in the
past year. His number of errors is incredibly low. His income fell last year.
CONTROL IS UP
I have control over her. I am on top of the situation. He’s in a superior position. He’s at the
height of his power. He’s in the high command. His power rose. He’s in a dominating
position. He ranks above me in strength. He is under my control. He fell from power. His
power is on the decline.
GOOD IS UP

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Things are looking up. We hit a peak last year, but it’s been going downhill ever since.
Things are at an all-time low. The quality of life is high these days.
RATIONAL IS UP
The discussion fell to the emotional level, but I raised it back up to the rational plane. We
put our feelings aside and had a high-level intellectual discussion of the matter. He couldn’t
rise above his emotions.
It is obvious that conceptual metaphors have their origins in a physical basis. For example,
we talk about waking up and falling asleep because humans sleep lying down and stand up
when they are awake.
(3) Ontological Metaphors
These metaphors involve the projection of entity or substance status on something that does
not have that status inherently. In other words, we tend to conceive of events, activities and
emotions as entities and substances. Such ontological metaphors are used for a variety of
purposes, among which are quantifying (America has a lot of political capital invested in
Iraq), setting the goals (Dick Wittington went ot London to seek his fortune) and referring
(Her fear of flying is a huge problem). In each of these cases, the italicised part of the
sentence is being treated metaphorically as a substance. Another ontological metaphor,
according to this theory, is the container metaphor. Lakoff maintains that humans are
territorial by nature and suggests that the notions of bounded objects and bounded physical
spaces are prime candidates for metaphor.A boundary between one space and another may
be denoted by what a person 's visual field can encompass, leading to the conceptual
metaphor VISUAL FIELDS ARE CONTAINERS.
The attacker is outside the victim's field of vision
The sailors had been out of sight of land for weeks
The huge car came into view.

Ideas Are Entities and Words Are Containers

It’s hard to get that idea across to him. Your reasons came through to me. It’s difficult to put
my ideas into words. When you have a good ids a, try to capture it immediately in words.
Try to pack more thought into fewer words. His words carry little meaning. Your words
seem hollow. The ideas are buried in terribly dense paragraphs.
The Mind Is a Machine
We’re still trying to grind out the solution to this equation. My mind just isn’t operating
today. Boy, the wheels are turning now! I’m a little rusty today. We’ve been working on this
problem ah day and now we’re running out of steam.

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The Mind Is a Brittle Object
She’s very fragile. You have to handle him with care since his wife’s death. He broke under
cross-examination. The experience shattered him. I’m going to pieces. His mind snapped .
Vitality Is a Substance
He overflows with energy. She’s brimming with vim and vigour. Toward the end of the day
I just run out of energy. There’s no life in him anymore since his accident. Her vitality
shows up in everything she does.
(3) Structural Metaphors
These involve the structuring of one kind of experience or activity in terms of another kind
of experience or activity.
Understanding Is Seeing
I see what you’re saying. It looks different from my point of view. What is your outlook on
that? Now I’ve got the whole picture. Let me point something out to you.
That’s an insightful idea.
Life Is a Gambling Game
I’ll take my chances. The odds are against us. I’ve got an ace up my sleeve. It’s a toss-up. If
you play your cards right, you can do it. He’s a real loser. Where is he when the chips are
down?
METAPHORS HAVE ENTAILMENTS
Since metaphorical concepts are defined in terms of non-metaphorical concepts, they show
entailment relations parallel to those for the corresponding non- metaphorical concepts. For
example, MONEY is a LIMITED RESOURCE, and LIMITED RESOURCES ARE VALUABLE
COMMODITIES. Paralleling these, we have the metaphorical concept TIME IS MONEY,
which entails that TIME IS A LIMITED RESOURCE and TIME IS A VALUABLE
COMMODITY.
Time Is Money
How do you spend your time these days? That flat tire cost me an hour. I’ve invested a lot of
time in her. You need to budget your time. You don’t use your time profitably.
Time Is a Limited Resource
I don’t have the time to give you. You’re running out of time. Put aside some time for ping
pong. Do you have much time left? I lost a lot of time when I got sick.
Time Is a Valuable Commodity
This gadget will save you hours. My time is precious right now. You’re wasting my time. Is
that worth your while? Thank you for your time.

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 METAPHORICAL DEFINITIONS:
PARTIAL, INCONSISTENT, AND OVERLAPPING
Most of our concepts are abstract-concepts like TIME, EMOTIONS, COMMUNICATION,
THE MIND, IDEAS, INSTITUTIONS, INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS. In general,
abstract concepts are defined metaphorically in terms of concepts that are more concrete and
more clearly structured on their own terms-concepts like SPACE, MOTION, FOOD,
OBJECTS, etc. However, no single, concrete, non-metaphorical concept is ever structured in
exactly the right way to completely and precisely define any single abstract concept. As a
result, abstract concepts are typically defined metaphorically in terms of more than one
concrete concept. Each metaphor defines only certain aspects of an abstract concept. Thus,
we understand abstract concepts in terms of many metaphorical definitions, each of which
captures part of the concept. For example, the concept of an IDEA is defined by a rich and
complex cluster of metaphors.
(1) Ideas Are Organisms (with Respect to Life and Death)
Ideas Are People
He conceived a brilliant theory of molecular motion. The University of Chicago was the
birthplace of the nuclear age. This concept is the brainchild of one of our finest young
executives. Edward Teller is the father of the hydrogen bomb. Cognitive psychology is still
in its infancy.
Ideas Are Plants
His ideas have finally come to fruition. That idea died on the vine. That’s a budding theory.
It will take years to come to full flower. He views chemistry as a mere offshoot of physics.
The seeds of his great ideas were planted in his youth. She has a fertile imagination.
Ideas Are Products
We’re really turning (churning. cranking, grinding) out new ideas. We’ve generated a lot of
ideas this’ week. He produces ideas at an astounding rate. His intellectual productivity has
decreased in recent years. We need to take the rough edges off that idea, hone it down,
smooth it out. It’s a rough idea; it needs to be refuted.

Ideas Are Commodities

It’s important how you package your ideas. He won’t buy that. That idea just won’t sell.
There is always a market for good ideas. That’s a worthless idea. He’s been a ource of
valuable ideas. Your ideas don’t have a chance in the intellectual marketplace.
Ideas Are Resources
He ran out of ideas. Don’t waste your thoughts on small projects. Let’s pool our ideas.

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He’s a resourceful man. We’ve used up all our ideas. That’s a useless idea. That idea will go a
long way.
Ideas Are Money
Let me put in my two cents. He’s rich in ideas. That book is a treasure-trove of ideas.
He has a wealth of ideas.
Ideas Are Cutting Instruments
That’s an incisive idea. That cuts right to the heart of the matter. That was a cutting remark.
He’s sharp. He has a razor wit. He has a keen mind. She cut his argument to ribbons.
Ideas Are Food
What he said left a bad taste in my mouth. There are too many facts in the paper for me to
digest them all. I just can’t swallow that claim. Let me stew over that for a while. Now
there’s a theory you can really sink your teeth into. That’s food for thought. He’s a voracious
reader. He devoured the book. Let’s let that idea simmer on the back burner for a while.
This is the meaty part of the paper.
Ideas Are Fashions
That idea went out of style years ago. I hear socio-biology is in these days. Socialism is
currently fashionable in Western Europe. That idea is old hat! That’s an outdated idea.
What are the new trends in English criticism? He keeps up to date by reading New York
Review of Books. Berkeley is a centre of avante-garde thought. Semiotics has become quite
chic. That old hypothesis is really behind the times.
Each of these defines some aspect of the concept of an IDEA. However, these metaphors
taken together do not provide a consistent definition for the concept of an IDEA. Some
metaphors have parts that are inconsistent with parts of other metaphors. Thus, IDEAS ARE
CUTTING INSTRUMENTS is inconsistent with IDEAS ARE PEOPLE, since PEOPLE are not
used for cutting and CUTTING INSTRUMENTS are made, not born. IDEAS ARE FASHIONS
is not fully consistent with IDEAS ARE FOOD, since we do not eat and digest fashions.
Moreover, IDEAS ARE MONEY is inconsistent with IDEAS ARE PLANTS, since, as we all
know, money doesn’t grow on trees. In some cases the inconsistencies between metaphors
are cases where properties and functions are inconsistent (e.g. people aren’t used for cutting).
But in other cases the inconsistency is even more radical. These are cases where the
metaphors have conflicting ontologies. Each metaphor imposes an entity- structure of a
certain kind on the concept IDEA. The IDEAS ARE PEOPLE metaphor brings along the
associated entities PARENTS and (possibly) PROGENY. PLANTS have SEEDS as associated
entities, and FOOD has associated cooking implements.

96
Thus, the IDEAS ARE PRODUCTS metaphor has neither SEEDS nor PARENTS, and the
IDEAS ARE MONEY metaphor has no associated cooking implements.
But even though parts of the various metaphors for IDEAS are inconsistent with other parts,
the metaphors do have partial overlaps in many respects. In other words, there are some
aspects of the concept IDEA which have correlates in more than one metaphor. Thus
PACKAGING in the IDEAS ARE PRODUCTS metaphor corresponds to FASHIONS.
PARENTS in the IDEAS ARE PEOPLE metaphor corresponds to PRODUCERS in the IDEAS
ARE PRODUCTS metaphor. Both PRODUCTS and FOOD can be consumed. Both PLANTS
and PEOPLE develop and die.
In summary, abstract concepts are not defined by necessary and sufficient conditions. Instead
they are defined by clusters of metaphors. Each metaphor gives a partial definition. These
partial definitions overlap in certain ways, but in general they are inconsistent, and typically
have inconsistent ontologies.
We would only like to stress that the usual concept of definition in terms of necessary and
sufficient conditions will not do. It is extremely important to note that abstract concepts are
defined in terms of a system of related metaphors in the conceptual system. The definitions
are given for general concepts, not individual words. No lexicon for individual words and
phrases will be adequate for definitions of this kind. Such definitions must be made in terms
of metaphors on the conceptual level, and not in terms of words on the linguistic level (for
discussion, see Lakoff & Johnson, 1980).
The fact that the abstract concepts are defined by the clusters of partially overlapping
metaphors has another important consequence. Each metaphor highlights certain aspects of
the concept and implicitly hides others. The IDEAS ARE PEOPLE metaphor focuses on
COMING INTO EXISTENCE, DEVELOPMENT, and GOING OUT OF EXISTENCE. In doing
so, it downplays or hides what the IDEAS ARE COMMODITIES metaphor stresses namely
that ideas have a commercial value, can be bought and sold, etc. It follows from this that no
single metaphor even comes close to being definitive. In general, each metaphor hides more
than it highlights. It takes many different and inconsistent metaphorical perspectives to
comprehend each abstract concept.

Critique of CMT

Despite its popularity in and outside cognitive linguistics, cognitive metaphor theory (CMT)
has received a wide range of critique in the past two decades. Specifically, CMT is criticised
because of the methodology employed. In this respect, particularly, the fact that CMT

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emphasises concepts instead of words has been criticised. As well as this, the direction of
analysis (CMT emphasises a top-down instead of a bottom-up approach); the category level
of metaphor (claiming its superordinate status instead of basic level), the embodiment of
metaphor (emphasizing the universal, mechanical, and monolithic aspects instead of
nonuniversal, nonmechanical, and nonmonolithic aspects of embodiment), and its
relationship to culture (emphasizing the role of universal bodily experience instead of the
interaction of body and context (Zoltán Kövecses, Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics
2008, 6(1):168-184) have been put under question.

Practice section:
Answer the following questions:
1. Find Georgian equivalents to the metaphors indicated above . Is the metaphor universal or
cultural-specific?
2. What is the basis of CMT ( conceptual metaphor theory)?
3. Discuss the difference between the images as actualised in art and literature. Provide examples.
4. Discuss the differences between genuine and trite metaphors. Provide examples and describe them.
5. Which of the type of metaphor ( question 4) does the CMT depend on?
6. Why does Leech describe a metaphor as a covert comparison? Give examples
7. Describe the main points of CMT. How does a metaphor function?
8. Why are abstract ideas defined by metaphoric clusters?

2. Read the editorial from the British tabloid The Sun and anwer the following questions:
What conceptual metaphor does the writer use to describe the Labour government?
What are the mappings between the domains ?
What is the reader 's place within the conceptual metaphor? What role does the coneptual
metaphor imposes on him/her?
What effect does the conceptual metaphor have on how you perceive the topic of politics?

WALK TALL YOU TORY DWARFS

Twelve months ago, Iain Duncan Smith dubbed himself the Quiet Man. INvisible Man,
more like it.
The Government has never been in more trouble.
In the country, voter's trust is ebbing away.
Last week The Sun reflected the concern of the nation by showing Mr. Blair a yellow card-
and warned him the red could follow.

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At the moment the PM is still on the pitch-but is struggling to find his goal- scoring touch.
Labour's fumbling has left IDS facing a series of open goals-health. transport, asylum, taxes.
SO far he has missed the lot
The leader of Her Majesty's Opposition should be giving Tony Blair, the savaging he
deserves.
But The INvisible Man has had less effect than a mosquito biting an elephant's backside.
The performance of today's Tories shames a once =great political party and is a danger to the
nation.....
This week in Blackpool,IDS and the Tory party must raise the roof if they are to avoid
disappearing off the political map.
Democracy depends on a fierce unending debate. Without it, pwer tips one way and society
suffers.
That is what is happening in Britain today.
Last week Tony Blair admitted that improving public services would be a test of his mettle.
Now IDS faces a test if HIS mettle.
Can he ever exploit Labour 's failings? The omens are not good.
AT the Brent RAst by-election, the Tories surrendered before campaigning began.
And in Blackpool, the Tories surrendered before campaigning began.
And in Blacpool, the Tories will hold just 13 hours of debate, half of what Labour had in
Bournemouth.
Hardly the actions of a party bursting with energy and hungry for power.
With the Lib Dems breathing down their necks, the Tories must be bold.
Gordon Brown has flung down the gauntlet over public spending and tax cuts. IDS should
pick it up and slap Brown in the face with it.
His weekend pledge to cut taxes was a good start.
The Tories must not let Brown get away with the idea that only the State can provide public
services.
Many say IDS is uninspiring, a vote loser not a winner. But even an uninspiring leader can
make an impact-if he is brace enough.
IDS must attack the Lib Dems without mercy, making clear how far to the left that ragbag
party is.
But most important of all, he must stamp the Torie in the public mind as the main
Opposition.
Not the third-rafters they look right on
(The SUn SAys. October 6, 2003 Taken from Stylistics, by Jeffires and McIntyre. (pp. 150))

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CHAPTER 7
Decoding Stylistics and Its Fundamental Concepts

In this chapter we will discuss the following issues: a) Stylistics of the author and of
the reader; b) The notions of encoding and decoding. c) Essential concepts of decoding
stylistic analysis and types of foregrounding.

Stylistics of the author and of the reader. The notions of encoding and decoding
Decoding stylistics is the most recent and interesting trend in contemporary stylistic
research. As well as Stylistics of the author, decoding stylistics, which is oftern referred to as
stylistics of the reader is interdisciplinary. Besides linguistic material, decoding stylistics
employs theoretical findings in information theory, psychology, statistical studies in
combination with linguistics, literary theory, history of art, literary criticism, etc.
Several articles are dedicated to the issue of decoding stylistics maintaining that
decoding goes beyond the traditional analysis of a work of fiction.

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 Decoding stylistics makes an attempt to regard the aesthetic value of a text based on
the interaction of specific textual elements, stylistic devices and compositional structure
while delivering the author's message. This method does not consider the stylistic function of
any stylistically important feature separately but only as a part of the whole text. Here
expressive means and stylistic devices are treated in their interaction and distribution within
the text as carriers of the author's intention, purpose and creativity. Through decoding
stylistics, the stylistic study of any literary work acquires a new, semantic dimension. In this
dimension, the stylistic elements become signs of the author's vision of the world as seen and
perceived by the reader. Therefore, decoding stylistics helps the reader in his or her
understanding of a literary work by explaining or decoding the information that may be
hidden from the immediate view in specific allusions, cultural or political parallels, peculiar
use of CDs, etc.
The term 'decoding stylistics' came from the application of the theory of information
to linguistics by such authors as Riffatrre, R. Jacobson, Guiraud,.Danes, Lotman and others.
Riffaterre (1999) was the first scholar to introduce the concept of decoding stylistics.
He regards stylistics as “the science which studies those features of the linguistic utterance
which are utilized to impose the encoder’s way of thinking of the decoder.” As well as this,
Riffatterre describes the role and function of stylistics in this way: “The author’s encoding is
permanent, but the process of decoding changes as the language changes in the course of
time. Stylistics should encompass this simultaneity of permanence and change” (56). As well
as this, the same author connects the notion of style to the same idea: “Style is the means by
which the encoder ensures that his message is decoded in such a way that the reader not
only understands the information conveyed, but shares the writer’s attitude towards it”
(Lodge, 2001:56).
In a rather simplified version this theory of decoding stylistics presents a creative
process in the following mode. The writer receives diverse information from the outside
world. Some of it is perceived and becomes a source for his creative work. Then, this
information is processed and poured in the writer’s aesthetic images (containers) that become
a vehicle to pass his vision/attitudes/aesthetics to the addressee, his readers. This interesting
process of internalizing of the outside information and translating it into his imagery is called
'encoding'. While encoding certain information, the writer (the encoder) typically
visualises the decoder (the abstract reader) and tries to encode the message
(information) in the way that will make it easy to be decoded.
However, to encode the information does not mean to have it delivered or passed
intact to the decoded. This process is quite hard and bumpy. For instance, the potential

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reader, referred to as an abstract reader may not be prepared or willing to decode the
message or even take it. There maybe many reasons for this. First, the reader may
experience a number of differences concerning social, historical, temporal, cultural events
described in the text. On the one hand, many of these differences between the author and his
reader are inevitable. The work of literature can be read centuries after it was created.
Consequently, the readers and the authors may be separated by historical epochs, cultural
and social conventions, religious and political views. On the other hand, if the author and
the reader share the same cultural background and historical period, the reader still cannot
completely identify himself with the author emotionally, intellectually, aesthetically or from
gender perspectives. As well as this, the literary works are known to be complex regarding
both the content and form. Decoding literature also requires a wide educational thesaurus
and knowledge of history, philosophy, mythology or religion.
As well as this, the readers differ not only from the author but also from each other
considering life experience, educational background, culture and tastes.
All these factors often interfere with easy and smooth decoding of the message and
reveal how difficult the process of decoding is. The message sent by the encoder will differ
from the message received after decoding.
Decoding stylistics explores the same levels (phonetic, graphical, lexical, and
grammatical levels) as encoding stylistics, which is also known as traditional stylistics. The
basic difference between these two branches lies in the fact that they are connected with
different communicative components. Specifically, traditional stylistics studies the process of
encoding, or, the writer’s or the speaker’s point of view, whereas decoding stylistics is
connected with the reader’s or listener’s response. As well as this, the traditional, encoding
stylistics is primarily concerned with expressive and descriptive means of the literary work
while decoding stylistics, besides the above-mentioned, also studies the way the literary text
is organized and different types of foregrounding (contextual organization).

Foregrounding
As it has been described above, an author's attitudes and emotions are encoded in the
text through language. The reader is expected to perceive and decode the author’s ideas and
attitudes by interpreting the text.
One of the fundamental concepts of decoding stylistics is foregrounding. It is the
practice of making something stand out from the surrounding words or images. (Leech, G. &
Short, M. (2007) Style in Fiction (2nd ed.; Pearson Education Ltd.) The term was first
associated with Paul Garvin in the 1960s who borrowed it from the Prague school of the

102
1930s.6 Foregrounding refers to the features of the text which in some sense 'stand out' from
their surroundings.7 The theory about foregrounding claims that in a text certain sounds,
lexical items, phrases and/or clauses may be different from what their surroundings or some
perceived 'norm' in the language; that they deserve more attention by making them
prominent. In other words, foregrounding means a specific role that some language items
play in a certain context. In a literary text such items become stylistically marked features
that build up and reveal their potential stylistic function.
As suggested by the British School, there are two main types of foregrounding:
parallelism and deviation. Parallelism is usually described as unexpected regularity, while
deviation is classed as unexpected irregularity (Leech, G. (1969) A Linguistic Guide to
English Poetry. Longman). Something can only be unexpectedly regular or irregular within
a particular context.
However, in the Russian school of Stylistics foregrounding may be based on various
types of deviation or redundancy or unexpected combination of language units, etc. As
pointed out by Arnold, sometimes the effect of foregrounding can be achieved by the very
absence of any expressive or distinctive features because they are expected in certain types of
texts, e. g. the absence of rhythmical arrangement in verse (Arnold, 2002).
All in all, decoding stylistics laid down a few principal methods that ensure the effect
of foregrounding in a literary text. Among the manifestations of foregrounding the following
are analysed in this textbook: convergence of expressive means, defeated expectancy,
coupling, semantic fields, semi-marked structures.

Convergence
The term “convergence” in stylistics is used to denote accumulation in one place of a
beam of stylistic devices participating in a single stylistic function» [Arnold: 63] It also
implies a combination or accumulation of stylistic devices promoting the same idea, emotion
or motive. Stylistic convergence contributes to the creation of a certain stylistic effect. On
the other hand, a stylistic device is not attached to only one stylistic effect. Therefore,
depending on the context, a SD may have any number functions and effects.
This «chameleon» quality of a stylistic device enables the author to apply different
devices for the same purpose (Znamenskaya, 2004). The use of more than one type of

6
The Prague circle was born as a trend in structural linguistics and made a valuable contribution to the development
of phonology and the theory of oppositions, the concepts of norm and codification, functional styles and
dialectology, etc.
7
Interestingly, this term is metaphorical and is associated with the term “ foregrounding” employed
in the visual arts (painitng, photography).

103
expressive means in close succession is a powerful technique to support the idea that is of
paramount importance in the author's view. Such redundancy ensures the delivery of the
message to the reader.
This extract from E. Waugh's novel «Decline and Fall» reveals convergence of the
expressive means which come together to create an effect of a beautiful lady’s glamorous
lifestyle.
The door opened and from the cushions within emerged a tall young man in a
clinging dove-gray coat. After him, like the first breath of spring in 'he Champs-Elysee came
Mrs. Beste-Chetwynde—two lizard-skin feet, silk legs, chinchilla body, a tight little black
hat, pinned with platinum and diamonds, and the high invariable voice that may be heard in
any Ritz Hotel from New York to Budapest. 8
The convergence of CDs is made up of the following expressive means: inversion (
..from the cushion within emerged a tall man; ...like the first breath of spring came Mrs.
Beste-Chetwynde), simile (like the first breath of spring in the Champs-Ely), allusions to
Paris and the mention of the Ritz hotel in the range from New York to Budapest. Moreover,
“metonymy creates the cinematographic effect of shots and fragments of the picture as
perceived by the gazing crowd and suggests the details usually blown up in fashionable
newspaper columns on high society life: two lizard-skin feet, silk legs, chichilla body, a tight
little black hat... the invariable voice.”
The paragraph also reveals an interesting case of convergence of the words associated
with the high-quality lifestyle and other extra-linguistic cues, namely, hyphenated names,
which in Britan indicate noble background. All in all, the total effect of extravagance and
glamour is achieved by the concentrated use many types of expressive means within one
paragraph.

Defeated expectancy
Defeated expectancy is one of the significant notions of decoding stylistics and
foregrounding. Like convergence, defeated expectancy is not limited to some definite level or
type of devices. The essence of the same notion is closely connected with the process of
decoding of the literary text. The principle of defeated expectancy9 violates established
arrangement of semantic space of the text as it contradicts the information encoded in the
text earlier. Defeated expectancy can be implemented at all levels of language through
various linguistic devices, e.g., at the lexical level, it may be expressed through authors'

8
The example is taken from “Stylistics of the English Language” by Znamenskaya.
9
this term belongs to R. Jacobson and in the British school of stylistics is known as a deviation

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neologisms, jargons or vulgarisms, used in the literary style; at the syntactic level
defeated expectancy can emerge as a result of unexpected appearance of inversion; at the
phonetic level this phenomenon may be created by abrupt changes in metres of the verse,
thus transforming its syntactic and poetic organization (Arnold 2002: 57)
Defeated expectancy, like convergence, can be represented through various stylistic
devices. However, it is also accepted that defeated expectancy leads to some kind of suspense
of the semantic and structural text dimensions. Structural text suspense arises when the
reader makes an attempt to restore harmony of the text structure, which is deliberately
violated by the author. Semantic text suspense is evoked by differences between “the real
world and the world of chaos”, created in fiction. Both semantic and structural suspense lead
to changes in the reader's perception that promote the lengthening of textual interpretation
process; in order to understand the meaning of which the reader must put more efforts in
thorough understanding of textual material. (https://www.khanacademy.org/test-
prep/sat/new-sat-tips-planning/new-sat-about-sat/a/what-does-the-words-in-context-
subscore-measure).
The organization of the text prepares the reader for the consequential, spacial and
logical development of the events. Normally, both the form and content of the text is largey
based on its logical predictability. This means that the appearance of any new element in the
text is logically determined and preconditioned by the preceding choice of elements both
formally and semantically.
Where there is a will, there is a fraud;
(https://books.google.ge/books?
id=UOPXXYslemYC&pg=PA240&lpg=PA240&dq=exmples+of+defeated+expectancy&source
=bl&ots=1mEfdbOGMD&sig=ACfU3U2s-
EKIwu1dPweKY1spiEfixumrg&hl=ka&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjJurSht_jnAhXC-
6QKHdznD04Q6AEwB3oECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=fraud&f=false)

Without predictability there would be no coherence and no decoding. At the same

time stylistically distinctive features are often based on the deviation from the norm and
predictability. An appearance of an unpredictable element may upset the process of
decoding. Even though not completely unpredictable a stylistic device is still a low
expectancy element and it is sure to catch the reader's eye. The decoding process meets an
obstacle, which is given the full force of the reader's attention. Such concentration on this
specific feature enables the author to affect his purpose.

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 Defeated expectancy may come up on any level of the language. It may be an unusual
word against the background of otherwise lexically homogeneous text.
He killed two birds with one diplomatic stone.
Defeated expectancy may be based on an author's coinage with an unusual suffix; it
may be a case of semantic incongruity or grammatical transposition. Among devices that are
based on this principle we can name pun, zeugma, paradox, oxymoron, irony, anti-climax,
etc.
For instance, She broke his favourite watch and his heart; The boys covered
themselves with dust and glory.( Mark Twain).
Paradox is a good manifestation of defeated expectancy. The following example
demonstrates how paradox works in such highly predictable cases as proverbs and
phraseology. Everybody knows the proverb Marriages are made in Heaven. However, Oscar
Wilde, introduces an unexpected element and the phrase acquires an absolutely opposite
implication- Divorces are made in Heaven. The effect of defeated expectancy is achieved
through the employoment of the antonym of the original element (Marriage versus Divorce).
The reader is forced to make an effort at interpreting the new maxim so that it would make
sense.

Coupling
The notion of coupling was introduced by S. Levin in his work «Linguistic Structures
in Poetry» in 1962. Coupling is a technique that makes the process of decoding the message
easier. As it has been shown, both convergence and defeated expectancy focus the reader's
attention on the particularly significant parts of the text whereas coupling deals with the
arrangement of textual elements that build up the unity and cohesion of the whole text
structure.
Like defeated expectancy coupling can appear at any level of the ianguage; it may be
phonetic, structural or semantic. It is maintained that particularly prominent types of
affinity are provided by the phonetic expressive means. These can be alliteration, assonance,
paranomasia, as well as such prosodic features as rhyme, rhythm and meter.
Syntactically, coupling is achieved by all kinds of parallelism and syntactical
repetition—anadiplosis, anaphora, framing, chiasmus, epiphora, etc.
Semantic coupling is manifested by the use of synonyms and antonyms, both direct
and contextual, paraphrase, sustained metaphor, recurrence of images, connotations or
symbols. Coupling is frequently used in proverbs. In the following cases coupling is expressed
through contrast:

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 Lend your money and lose your friend.
The life of the wolf is the death of the lamb.
An illustration of the coupling technique is given below in the passage from John
O'Hara's novel “Ten North Frederick”. The main organizing principle here is also contrast.
Lloyd Williams lived in Collieryville, a mining town three or four miles from 10
North Frederick, but separated from the Chapins' home and their life by the accepted
differences of money and prestige; the miners' poolroom, and the Gibbsville Club; sickening
poverty, and four live-in servants for a family of four; The Second Thursdays, and the
chicken-and-waffle suppers of the English Lutheran Church. Joe Chapin and Lloyd Williams
were courthouse-corridor friends and fellow Republicans, but Joe was a Company man and
Lloyd Williams was a Union man who was a Republican because to be anything else in
Lantenengo County was futile and foolish. (O'Hara).
The central idea of the passage is to describe the difference between two men
belonging to two different social classes. Interestingly, the author does not indicate it
explicitly but show the social contrast through the details of the lifestyle of the two people.
The effect of coupling is expressed through the following CDs and Expressive means: chain
of parallel clauses, antitheses, contextual antonyms, cultural patterns known to the British
Society (the contrast between the miners’ poolroom and the Gibbseville Club; sickening
poverty and four servants serving a family of four, etc), alliteration (four servants for a
family of four, futile and foolish).
The similarity of these elements' positions in this text makes the contrast all the more
striking.

Semantic fields
A Semantic field is one of the methods of decoding stylistics closely connected with
coupling. It is often defined as "a set of lexemes which cover a certain conceptual domain and
which bear certain specifiable relations to one another" (Adrienne Lehrer, 1985).
A Semantic field identifies lexical elements of identical semantics in text segments and
studies their capabilities of building up a text cohesion. In order to decode this sort of
cohesion the reader must carefully observe lexical and synonymous repetitions as well as
their semantic closeness. From this point of view, it is important to explore lexico-semantic
variants, connotations and associations evoked by a specific use or distribution of lexical units
and thematic links of unrelated lexical units.
Lexical ties relevant to this kind of analysis include synonymous and antonymous
relations, morphological derivation, relations of inclusion (various types of hyponymy and

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entailment) as well as common recurrent semes in the denotative or connotative meanings
of different words.
If a word manifests semantic links with one or more other words in the text it shows
thematic relevance and several links of this sort may be considered a semantic field, an
illustration of which was offered in the previous two examples on coupling.
One of the examples above described a glamorous lifestyle of a wealthy lady taken
from E. Waugh's novel «Decline and Fall» and based on convergence of expressive means.
From this point of view of semantic fields, several interesting moments can be identified: (a)
The choice of words associated with high-quality life style: exotic materials, expensive
clothes and jewelry creates a semantic field that enhances the impression still further (lizard,
silk, chinchilla, platinum and diamonds). ( b) from the stylistic point of view, the high-flown
style of description is achieved by the careful choice of literary bookish lexical items: emerge,
invariable, etc.
As well as this, an extract from John O'Hara's novel “Ten North Frederick” used as an
example of coupling, also reveals employment of the method of the semantic field. First of
all, semantic ties in that example (mostly expressed implicitly) are based on the symbolic
cultural connotations (Church meals, Club member, live-in servants, Union man, etc.) and
create a semantic field describing the contrast between wealth and poverty.
Besides, one group of lexical items creates the semantic field of wealth and power:
money, social prestige, the Gibbsville Club (symbol of wealth, high social standing,
belonging to the select society), four live-in servants for a family of four, formal dinner
parties for people of high standing, etc. The opposing semantic field is made up of lexical
units denoting and symbolizing poverty and social inferiority; specifically, these are miners'
poolroom (a working class kind of leisure), sickening poverty, chicken -and-waffle suppers
of, the English Lutheran Church (i. e. informal gatherings where people cook together and
share food), a Union man (a representative of the working class).

Semi-marked structures
Semi-marked structures are considered to be the strongest case of defeated expectancy
and are based on the deviation from the grammatical and lexical norms accepted by the
language.
as freedom is a breakfastfood
or truth can live with right and wrong
or molehills are from mountains made
—long enough and just so long

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 will being pay the rent of seem
and genius please the talentgang
and water most encourage flame
In this poem by E. Cummings we can see the violation of punctuation, spelling rules
as well as at the morphological level: breakfastfood, talentgang; synthentical rules; word
order (genius please the talentgang and water most encourage flame; Or molehills are from
mountains made-long enough and just so long….).
Lexical deviation from the norm usually means breaking the laws of semantic
compatibility and lexical valency. Arnold considers semi-marked structures as a part of
tropes based on the unexpected or unpredictable relations established between objects and
phenomena by the author.
He liked the ugly little college... (Waugh)
Such combination of lexical units in our normal everyday speech is rare. However, in
spite of their apparent incongruity semi-marked structures of both types are widely used in
literary texts that are full of sophisticated correlations which help to read sense into most
unpredictable combinations of lexical units.

Practice Section
1. Discuss the two approaches to the text and their advantages/disadvantages.
2. What is implied in the separation of the author's stylistics from the reader's?
3. How do the processes of encoding and decoding differ?
4. Comment on the factors that may prevent the reader from adequately decoding the
author's imagery and message.
5. Speak on the origin and importance of the notion foregrounding for stylistic analysis.
6. There is a convergence of expressive means in the passage below. Try to identify separate
devices that contribute to the poetic description of a beautiful young girl: types of repetition,
metaphor, sustained metaphor, catachresis, alliteration, inversion, coupling, semantic field:
On her face was that tender look of sleep, which a nodding flower has when it is full
out. Like a mysterious early /lower, she was full out, like a snowdrop which spreads its three
white wings in a flight into the waking sleep of its brief blossoming. The waking sleep of her
full-opened virginity, entranced like a snowdrop in the sunshine, was upon her. (Lawrence)
7. The basic principle in the next passage (that describes how only one of the two relatives
became the sole heir to the old man's money) is that of contrast and the method of
convergence ensures the ample interpretation of the author's intention. Explain the
intention and find the devices that deliver it.

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 From the start Philbrick was the apple of the old chap's eye, while he couldn't stick
Miss Grade at any price.
Philbrick could spout Shakespeare and Hamlet and things by the yard before Grade
could read «The cat sat on the mat». When he was eight he had a sonnet printed in the local
paper. After that Grade wasn't in it anywhere. She lived with the servants like Cinderella.
(Waugh)
8. How is the effect of defeated expectancy achieved in the examples below? What
are the specific devices employed in each case?
Celestine finally turned on the bench and put her hand over Dot's. —Honey, she said,
would it kill you to say 'yes'?
— Yes, said Dot. (Erdrich)
St. Valentine's Day, I remembered, anniversary for lovers and massacre. (Shaw)
—It's little stinkers like you, he said, who turn decent masters savage. —Do you
think that's so very complimentary?
—I think it's one of the most complimentary things I ever heard said about a master,
said Beste-Chetwynde. (Waugh)
/ think that, if anything, sports are rather worse than concerts, said Mr. Prendergast.
They at least happen indoors. (Waugh)
...the Indian burial mound this town is named for contain the things that each Indian
used in their lives. People have found stone grinders, hunting arrows and jewelry of colored
bones. So I think it's no use. Even buried, our things survive. (Erdrich)
— Would this be of any use? Asked Philbrick, producing an enormous
service revolver. Only take care, it's loaded.
— The very thing, said the Doctor. Only fire into the ground, mind. We must do
everything we can to avoid an accident. Do you always carry that about with you? —Only
when I'm wearing my diamonds, said Philbrick. (Waugh)
When we visited Athens, we saw the Apocalypse. (Maleska)
Texans, quite apart from being tall and lean, turned out to be short and stout,
hospitable, stingy to a degree, generous to a fault, even-tempered, cantankerous, doleful, and
happy as the day is long. (Atkinson)
9.Explain how the principle of coupling can be used in analyzing the following passages.
What types of coupling can you identify here?
Feeding animals while men and women starve, he said bitterly. It was a topic; a topic
dry, scentless and colourless as a pressed flower, a topic on which in the school debating
society one had despaired of finding anything new to say. (Waugh)

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 You asked me what I had going this time. What I have going is wine. With the way
the world's drinking these days, being in wine is like having a license to steal. (Shaw)
10 .In many cases coupling relies a lot on semantic fields analysis. Show how these principles
interact in the following passage.
The truth is that motor-cars offer a very happy illustration of the metaphysical
distinction between 'being' and 'becoming'. Some cars, mere vehicles, with no purpose above
bare locomotion, mechanical drudges... have definite 'being' just as much as their occupants.
They are bought all screwed up and numbered and painted, and there they stay through
various declensions of ownership, brightened now and then with a lick of paint... but still
maintaining their essential identity to the scrap heap.
Not so the real cars, that become masters of men; those vital creations of metal who
exist solely for their own propulsion through space, for whom their drivers are as important
as the stenographer to a stockbroker. These are in perpetual flux; a vortex of combining and
disintegrating units, like the confluence of traffic where many roads meet. (Waugh)

11. Try to define the themes of the following text with a description of a thunderstorm. Let
each group arrange the vocabulary of the passage into semantically related fields, for
example: storm sounds, shapes, colors, supernatural forces, etc.
We... looked out the mucking hole to where a tower of lightning stood. It was a broad
round shaft like a great radiant auger, boring into cloud and mud at once. Burning.
Transparent. And inside this cylinder of white-purple light swam shoals of creatures we
could never have imagined. Shapes filmy and iridescent and veined like dragonfly wings
erranded between the earth and heavens. They were moving to a music we couldn't hear,
the thunder blotting it out for us. Or maybe the cannonade of thunder was music for them,
but measure that we couldn't understand.
We didn't know what they were.
They were storm angels. Or maybe they were natural creatures whose natural
element was storm, as the sea is natural to the squid and shark. We couldn't make out their
whole shapes. Were they mermaids or tigers? Were they clothed in shining linen or in
flashing armor? We saw what we thought we saw, whatever they were, whatever they were
in process of becoming.
This tower of energies went away then, and there was another thrust of lightning
just outside the wall. It was a less impressive display, just an ordinary lightning stroke, but it
lifted the three of us thrashing in midair for a long moment, then dropped us breathless and
sightless on the damp ground. (Chappell)

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12 . Comment on the type of deviation in the following semi-marked structures.
Did you ever see a dream walking? (Cheever)
Man in the day or wind at night
Laid the crops low, broke the grape's joy. (Thomas)
/ think cards are divine, particularly the kings. Such naughty old faces! (Waugh)
The Maker's white coat and black visage had disappeared from the street doorway.
Reinhart got a premonition of doom when he saw the color combination with which they
had been replaced: policeman's midnight blue and Slavic-red face, but the pace helped keep
his upper lip stiff. (Berger)
Ask Pamela; she's so brave and manly. (Waugh)
// was Granny whom she came to detest with all her soul... her Yvette really hated,
with that pure, sheer hatred which is almost a joy. (Lawrence)
...everyone who spoke, it seemed, was but biding his time to shout the old village
street refrain which had haunted him all his life, «Nigger!— Nigger!—White Nigger!»
(Dunbar-Nelson)
To hear him speak French, if you didn't try to understand what he was saying, was as
good as attending «Phedre»: he seemed a cloud that had divorced a textbook of geometry to
marry Guillaume Apollinaire... (Jar-rell)

SELF ASSESSMENT TEST 1

1. State whether the following statemenets are True or False:
1. Expressive means of the language are employed to impress the T F
reader.
2. Expressive means are often used in business English. T F
3. Anaphora is the repetition of words at the end of the sentence. T F
4. Epiphora is sometimes referred to as antistrophe. T F
5. Parallel constructions are a type of repetition. T F
6. Polysindeton may accompany parallel constructions. T F
7. Gurgling of the water is indircet onomatopoeia. T F
8. Alliteration is based on repetition of words. T F
9 A Sound does not usually have its own meaning. T F

2. Identify the following SDs

1. A mighty Fortress is our God.
2. A 1000 apologies; to wait an eternity; he is stronger than a horse

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3. He thought, and thought, and thought;
4. He provided the poor with jobs, with opportunity, with self-respect.
5. He lost his hat and his temper, with weeping eyes and hearts.
6. He went to the country, to the town went she.
7. Tomorrow at 1.30; The ringleader was hanged and his followers imprisoned.
8. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, wise men use them; Give me
liberty or give me death.
9. Me he restored, him he hanged.
10. Her cheeks were as red as a tulip: simile
11. She is a real flower: metaphor
12. My love is a red, red rose: metaphor
13. Oh, great! Now you have broken my new camera! THank you for that!
14 . She milked the stuation and the cow
15. The attacker is outside the victim's field of vision
16. That's a long way from what I want
17. Silver bells... how they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle"
18. Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing;
19. "Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before.
20. Miss Tox's hand trembled as she slipped it through Mr. Dombey's arm, and" felt herself
escorted up the steps, preceded by a cocked hat and a Babylonian collar" (Dickens)
21. "Then they came in. Two of them, a man with long fair moustaches and a silent dark
man... Definitely, the moustache and I had nothing in common." (Doris Lessing, "Retreat to
Innocence")
22. "Maidens, like moths, are ever caught by glare" (Byron)
23. "When people say "I've told you fifty times"
They mean to scold, and very often do."
24. Talent Mr. Micawber has; capital Mr. Micawber has not."
25. A good generous prayer it was." (Mark Twain)
26. And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe,
And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot." (Shakespeare)
27. A saint abroad, and a devil at home." (Bunyan)
28. "Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven." (Milton)
29. "How long must it go on? How long must we suffer? Where is the end? What is the end?"
(Norris)

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CHAPTER 8

Stylistics and Grammar: Morphological stylistics and Syntactical stylistics

Stylistic research frequently largely concentrates on the lexical system and the stylistic
potential inherent to the lexical level of the language. However, stylistic potential of the
grammatical system of the language is yet to be explored.

As a linguistic phenomenon, metaphor can be considered (1) a lexical mechanism, i.e. a

feature which belongs to the lexis of a language; (2) or it can be a grammatical phenomenon,
i.e. a special resource of the grammar of a language. (Miriam Taverniers 2014)
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/55792741.pdf).

As it was described above, unlike the ancient rhetoric which mostly identified and described
stylistic expressive means, modern stylistics studies the mechanism of the functioning of
Stylistics. The stylistic effect is based on the binary opposition: the norm versus deviation
from the norm. This opposition is described by many stylisticians. For instance, Jacobson
maintained that the opposition beteween the norm and the deviation reveals the main secret

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of Stylistics. Skrebnev believes that Stylistics is based on the opposition between the
traditional meaning and situational (contextual-R&D) meaning. It is also interesting that
Arnold considers the very essence of poetic language to be the violation of the norm . As it
was claimed above, Stylistics deals with all the levels of the language. Consequenly, these
deviations may also occur on any level of the language—phonetic, graphical, morphological,
lexical or syntactical. Speaking about deviation, it should also be noted a deviation from the
norm does not automatically mean stylistic expressiveness. Some deviations from the norm
may lead to nonsense. There are also deviations that will only create absurdity or linguistic
nonsense.

Noam Chomsky constructed grammatical gradation scale with two poles. He called
grammatically correct structures unmarked structures whereas grammatically incorrect
structures were referred to as marked structures.

The latter ones cannot be generated by the linguistic laws of the given language, therefore
they cannot exist and accepted by it. For instance, unlike the Georgian language, in the
English language the word order is fixed. Consequently, A bear stole some honey and Some
honey stole the bear are different semantically (compare დათვმა თაფლი მოიპარა and
თაფლი მოიპარა დათვმა).

Between these two ends of the scale (marked versus unmarked) there is space for the so-called
semi-marked structures. These are structures marked by the deviation from lexical or
grammatical valency. Or in other words, lexical and grammar forms in such cases convey an
unusual and uncommon grammatical or referential meaning. In other terms, this is called
«transposition», a phenomenon that destroys normally practised valences and in this way,
creates stylistically significant expressiveness of the utterance.

Some scholars use the term grammatical metaphor for the kind of phenomena described
above. It is well-known that lexical metaphor is based on the transfer of some characteristics
of one object on to another one due to some common ground. The same mechanism works
in the formation of a grammatical metaphor. This type of metaphor involves violation of
grammatical normes opposed to the lexical transfer (Rusieshvili, 1990.) For instance, be
home, talk big in this theory is considered to be grammatical metaphors as they are based on
the rethinking and violation of grammatical norms in contrasts to the violation of stylistic
norms which works in case of stylistic metaphors.
It is a common knowledge that lexical items possess both lexical meanings and grammatical
meanings that correlate with extra-linguistic reality. For example, grammatical categories of

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plurality and singularity (a book - books ) reflect the distinction between a multitude and
oneness. The noun represents objects of this world. On the other hand, linguists maintain that
extra-linguistic reality may be represented in different languages in a different way. Therefore,
there are not only lexical and semantic but also grammatical differences.

A grammatical form, as well as a lexical unit possesses denotative and connotative meaning.
Denotative meanings indicate what a grammatical form designates. They may carry additional
expressive information, evoke associations, emotions and impressions. Grammatical forms
may even carry certain connotations and even provide extralinguitic information.

As well as this, there are at least three types of denotative grammatical meanings that can be
pointed out. Two of these have some kind of reference with the extra-linguistic reality and
one has zero denotation, i. e. there is no reference between the grammatical meaning and
outside world. (Lectures on English Lexicology, 2010)

It is maintained that the first type of grammatical denotation reflects relations of objects in
outside reality such as singularity and plurality. The second type of grammatical denotation
explores the relation of the speaker to the first type of denotation (pluratiy/singularity).
Besides, it shows how objective relations are perceived by reactions to the outside world.
This type of denotative meaning is expressed by such categories as modality, voice,
definiteness and indefiniteness.

Finally, the third type of denotative meaning has no reference to the extra-linguistic reality.
This is referred to be an intra–linguistic denotation, conveying relations among linguistic
units proper, e. g. the formation of past tense forms of regular and irregular verbs.

As is known, denotative meanings refer to the person or object designated by a grammatical

form . However, although grammatical forms evoke emotions and associations, they still do
not indicate the way these relations are expressed. The new connotative meaning of
grammatical forms appears when there arises a certain controversy between form and
meaning or deviation in the norm of use of some forms. The stylistic effect produced in this
process is often called grammatical metaphor.

According to Rusieshvili (1988) and Shendel (1989) we may speak of grammatical

metaphor when there is a transposition (transfer) of a grammatical form from one type of
grammatical relation to another. In such cases we deal with a redistribution of both
grammatical and lexical meanings that create new connotations.

Types of grammatical transposition

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There are three significant types of grammatical transposition:

1. Transposition of a certain grammar form into a new syntactical distribution, which

usually brings about an effect of contrast. The so-called “historical present” is a good
illustration of this type: a verb in the Present Indefinite form is used against the background
of the Past Indefinite narration. The effect of vividness, an illusion of «presence», a lapse in
time into the reality of the reader is achieved.

“It is a bright summer day in 1947. My father, a fat, funny man with beautiful eyes and a
subversive wit, is trying to decide which of his eight children he will take with him to the
county fair. My mother, of course, will not go. She is knocked out from getting most of us
ready: I hold my neck stiff against the pressure of her knuckles as she hastily completes the
braiding and the beribboning of my hair. ..."(Walker, Alice. "Beauty: When the Other
Dancer Is the Self." In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose, Harcourt Brace,
1983.)

2. The second type of transposition involves both—the lexical and grammatical

meanings. One example of this type of transposition is the use of the plural form with a
noun, the lexical denotative meaning of which is incompatible with plurality (abstract
nouns, proper names).

“The look on her face... was full of secret resentments, and longings, and fears. (Mitchell)

3. Transposition of classifying grammatical meanings, that brings together situationally

incompatible forms— for instance, the use of a common noun as a proper one. The
following may serve as examples: Lord and Lady Circumference, Mr. Parakeet, Prof. Silenus,
Colonel MacAdder. (Waugh)

Morphological stylistics: Stylistic potential of the parts of speech

The noun and its stylistic potential

The stylistic power of a noun is closely linked to the grammatical categories such as the
categories of number, person and case. For example, the use of a singular noun instead of an
appropriate plural form creates a generalized, elevated effect which is close to
symbolization.

The faint fresh flame of the young year flushes

From leaf to flower and from flower to fruit

And fruit and leaf are as gold and fire. (Swinbum)

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On the other hand, the use of plural instead of singular, makes the description more
powerful and large-scale.

“The clamour of waters, snows, winds, rains... “ (Hemingway)

Proper names employed as plural lend the narration a unique generalizing effect:

“If you forget to invite somebody's Aunt Millie, I want to be able to say I had nothing to do
with it.There were numerous Aunt Millies because of, and in spite of Arthur's and Edith's
triple checking of the list.” (O'Hara)

These examples represent the grammatical metaphor formed by the transposition of the
lexical and grammatical meanings.

3. The third type of transposition can be seen on the example of Personification. In this case,
grammatical metaphor appears due to the transposition of a noun, as only animate nouns
may have the category of person.

“England's mastery of the seas, too, was growing even greater. Last year her trading rivals
the Dutch had pushed out of several colonies... “(Rutherford)

“In the slanting beams that streamed through the open window the dust danced and was
golden” {http://www.mr-oscarwilde.de/works/stories/dorian_gray_chapter02.htm] - ,,ღია
ფანჯრიდან შემოსულ მზის სუსტ სხივებში, ოქროსფერი მტვერი ცეკვავდა”.

In some cases, the category of case (possessive case) which is typical of the proper nouns
forms Personification:

Love's first snowdrop Virgin kiss! (Burns)

Abstract nouns may be transposed into the class of personal nouns which makes them more
emotional with positive or negative connotations.

The chubby little eccentricity, (a child)

Stylistic potential of the article

The indefinite article may convey positive evaluative connotations when used with a proper
name:

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I'm a Marlow by birth, and we are a hot-blooded family. (Follett)

On the other hand, it may be charged with a negative evaluative connotation and diminish
the importance of someone's personality, make it sound insignificant.

Forsyte is not an uncommon animal. (Galsworthy)

The definite article used with a proper name may emphasize the person's good or bad
qualities.

Well, she was married to him. And what was more she loved him. Not the Stanley whom
everyone saw, not the everyday one; but a timid, sensitive, innocent Stanley who knelt
down every night to say his Prayers... (Dolgopolova)

The definite article may serve as an intensifier of the epithet used in the character's
description:

“My good fellow, I said suavely, what brings me here is this: I want to see the evening sun
go down over the snow-tipped Sierra Nevada. Within the hour he had spread this all over
the town and I was pointed out for the rest of my visit as the mad Englishman. (Atkinson)

No article or the omission of article before a common noun conveys a maximum level of
abstraction, generalization.

The postmaster and postmistress, husband and wife, ..looked carefully at every piece of
mail... (Erdrich)

How infuriating it was! Land which looked like baked sand became the Garden of Eden if
only you could get water. You could draw a line with a pencil: on one side, a waterless
barren; on the other, an irrigated luxuriance. (Michener)

The stylistic power of the pronoun

The stylistic functions of the pronoun also depend on the disparity, controversy 10between
the traditional and contextual (situational) meanings. This grammatical metaphor is based on
the transposition of the form, in particular, when one pronoun is transposed into the action
sphere of another pronoun.

The pronoun We that means «speaking together or on behalf of other people» can be used
with reference to a single person, the speaker, and is called the plural of majesty (Pluralis
Majestatis). It is used in Royal speech, decrees of King, etc.

10
შეუსაბამობა

119
And for that offence immediately do we exile him hence. (Shakespeare)

The plural of modesty or the author's we, or inclusive we is used with the purpose to
identify oneself with the audience or society. Employing the plural of modesty the author
involves the reader into the action making him a participant of the events and imparting the
emotions prevailing in the narration to the reader.

My poor dear child, cried Miss Crawly, ...is our passion unrequited then?

Are we pining in secret? Tell me all, and let me console you. (Thackeray)

The pronoun you is often used as an intensifier in an expressive address or imperative:

Get out of my house, you fool, you idiot, you stupid old Briggs. (Thackeray)

In some sentences, the personal pronoun they has a purely expressive function because it
does not substitute any real characters but indicates some abstract entity. The implication is
meant to oppose the speaker and his interlocutor to this indefinite collective group of
people.

All the people like us are we, and everyone else is they. (Kipling)

Such pronouns as One, You, We have two major connotations: that of 'identification' of the
speaker and the audience and 'generalization' (contrary to the individual meaning).
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Demonstrative pronouns may greatly enhance the expressive colouring of the utterance.

That wonderful girl! That beauty! That world of wealth and social position she lived in!
(London)

These lawyers! Don't you know they don't eat often? (Dreiser)

In these examples the demonstrative pronouns do not point at anything but the excitement
of the speaker.

Pronouns are a powerful means to convey the atmosphere of informal or familiar

communication or an attempt to achieve it.

It was Robert Ackly, this guy, that roomed right next to me.(Salinger)
Claws in, you cat.(Shaw)

Through the figurative use of the personal pronouns, the author may achieve metaphorical
images and even create sustained compositional metaphors.

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Thus using the personal pronoun she instead of the word «sea» in one of his best works “The
Old Man and the Sea”, Ernest Hemingway imparts to this word the category of feminine
gender that enables him to bring the feeling of the old man to the sea to a different, more
dramatic and more human level. As well as this, these can be considered cases of
personification.

“He always thought of the sea as 'la mar' which is what people call her in Spanish when they
love her. Sometimes those who love her say beta things about her but they are always said as
though she were a woman”. (Hemingway)

In the same book he calls a huge and strong fish a he:

“He is a great fish and I must convince him, he thought. I must never let flint learn his
strength”. (Hemingway)

Such recurrent use of these pronouns throughout the novel is charged with the message of
the old man's animating the elemental forces of the sea and its inhabitants and the vision of
himself as a part of nature.

The adjective and its stylistic functions

The only grammatical category of the English adjective today is that of comparison.
Comparison is only the property of qualitative and quantitative adjectives, but not of the
relative ones.When adjectives that are not normally used in a comparative degree are used
with this category they are charged with a strong expressive power.
(https://studfile.net/preview/5749529/page:14/)

Mrs. Thompson, Old Man Fellow's housekeeper had found him deader than a doornail...
(Mangum)

This is a vivid example of a grammatical transposition built on the incongruity of the lexical
and grammatical meanings. In the following example the unexpected superlative adjective
degree forms lend the sentence a certain rhythm and make it even more expressive:

...fifteen millions of workers, understood to be the strangest, the cunningest, the willingest
our Earth ever had. ( taken from Skrebnev)

The commercial functional style makes a wide use of the violation of grammatical norms to
captivate the reader's attention:

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The orange mostest drink in the world.

The transposition of other parts of speech into the adjective creates stylistically marked
pieces of description as in the following sentence:

“A camouflage of general suffuse and dirty-jeaned drabness covers everybody and we merge
into the background”. (Marshall)

The use of comparative or superlative forms with other parts of speech may also convey a
humorous colouring:

“He was the most married man I've ever met. (Arnold)

Another stylistic aspect of the adjective is substantivized adjectives when an adjective

acquires the qualities of a noun such as «solid, firm, tangible, hard,» etc.

All Europe was in arms, and England would join. The impossible had happened. (Aldington)

As can be seen the stylistic expressiveness of the adjective may be achieved through the
unusual use of the degrees of comparison that also results in grammatical metaphors
involving lexical and grammatical incongruity.

The verb and its stylistic properties

The verb is one of the oldest parts of speech and has a very developed grammatical
paradigm. It gives birth to all the types of grammatical metaphors discussed above. For
instance, a good example of the grammatical metaphor of the first type (form transposition)
is the use of 'historical present' that makes the description very pictorial, almost visible.

“The letter was received by a person of the royal family. While reading it she was
interrupted, had no time to hide it and was obliged to put it open on the table. At this enters
the Minister D... He sees the letter and guesses her secret. He first talks to her on business,
then takes out a letter from his pocket, reads it, puts it down on the table near the other
letter, talks for some more minutes, then, when taking leave, takes the royal lady's letter
from the table instead of his own. The owner of the letter saw it, was afraid to say anything
for there were other people in the room. (Рое)

Various shades of modality make utterances stylistically coloured and expressive to the
utterance.

The use of shall with the second or third person is used to denote the speaker's emotions,
intention or determination:

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The prizes shall stand among the bank of flowers. (Waugh)

Similar connotations are evoked by the emphatic use of will with the first person pronoun:

—Adam. Are you tight again ?

—Look out of the window and see if you can see a Daimler waiting.

—Adam, what have you been doing? I will be told. (Waugh)

Tenses frequently acquire different contextual meanings, such as the speaker’s state of mind,
his mood, intentions or emotions. For instance, in the following example, Present
Continuous Continuius expresses finality and determination:

Well, she's never coming here again, I tell you that straight; (Maugham)

As is known, stative verbs, including the verbs of physical and mental perception do not
regularly have continuous forms. When they do, however, they are used emphatically due
to the incompatible combination of lexical meaning and grammatical form.

Why, you must be the famous Captain Butler we have been hearing so much about—the
blockade runner. (Mitchell)

The use of non-finite forms of the verb such as the infinitive and participle I in place of the
personal forms gives certain stylistic connotations to the utterance.

To take steps! How? Winifred's affair was bad enough! To have a double dose of publicity in
the family! (Galsworthy)

The meaning of this sentence could be rendered as “he must take some steps to avoid a
double dose of publicity in the family!”

The passive voice of the verb when viewed from a stylistic angle may demonstrate such
functions as extreme generalization and depersonalization because an utterance is devoid of
the doer of an action and the action itself loses direction.
https://studfile.net/preview/5749529/page:14/)

Little Mexico, the area was called contemptuously, as sad and filthy a collection of dwellings
as had ever been allowed to exist in the west. (Michener)

The use of the auxiliary do in affirmative sentences is a very frequently used emphatic
device:

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I don't want to look at Sita. I sip my coffee as long as possible. Then I do look at her and see
that all the colour has left her face, she is fearfully pale. (Erdrich)

So, the stylistic potential of the verb is high enough. The major mechanism of creating
additional connotations is the transposition of verb forms that brings about the appearance
of metaphors of the first and second types.

Stylistic potential of affixation

The English language does not possess a great variety of word-forming resources. In
Georgian we have a very developed system of affixes, with evaluative and expressive
meanings: diminutive, derogatory, endearing, exaggerating, etc. Consider such a variety of
adjectives ციცქნა – პაწაწინა– მომცრო, პატარა; დიდი–მოდიდო–უდიდესი.

In English morphology, as is known, one can find some evaluative affixes as a remnant 11 of
the former morphological system or as a result of borrowing from other languages, such as:
weakling, piglet, rivulet, girlie, lambkin, kitchenette.

As is known, diminutive suffixes make up words denoting small dimensions, but also give
them a caressing, jocular or pejorative ring. These suffixes enable the speaker to
communicate his positive or negative evaluation of a person or thing. The suffix -ian/-ean
means 'like someone or something, especially connected with a particular thing, place or
person', e. g. the pre-Tolstoyan novel. It also denotes someone skilled in or studying a
particular subject: a historian. Compare in Georgian: ვიქტორიანული,

Concerning the connotation of this suffix, itconvey is usually positive and it is frequently
used with proper names, especially famous in art, literature, music, etc. For example,
Mozartean, Skakespearean mean like Mozart, Shakespeare or in that style.

However, some of these adjectives may possess negative connotations. For instance, The
Longman Dictionary of the English Language and Culture gives such definitions of the
adjective Dickensian: suggesting Charles Dickens or his writing, e. g. the old-fashioned,
11
Remaining part, ნარჩენი

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unpleasant dirtiness of Victorian England: Most deputies work two to an office in a space of
Dickensian grinmes by the cheerfulness of Victorian amusements and customs: a real
Dickensian Christmas.

The suffix –ish is not merely a neutral morpheme meaning a small degree of quality like blue
—bluish, but it serves to create 'delicate or tactful' occasional evaluative adjectives—baldish,
dullish, biggish. Another meaning is 'belonging or having characteristics of somebody or
something'.

Most dictionaries also point out that –ish may show disapproval {self¬ish, snobbish, raffish)
and often has a derogatory meaning indicating the bad qualities of something or qualities
which are not suitable to what it describes (e.g. mannish in relation to a woman). In
Georgian, the equivalent suffix -ური, also has both positive and negative connotations,
depending on the context. ბავშვური საქციელი; და ბავშვური ღიმილი; ბავშვური
სიცელქე.

Another suffix used similarly is—esque, indicating style, manner, or distinctive character:
arabesque, Romanesque. When used with the names of famous people it means 'in the
manner or style of this particular person'. Due to its French origin it is considered bookish
and associated with exquisite elevated style. Such connotations are implied in adjectives like
Dantesque, Turneresque, Kafkaesque. ვაჟასეული, აკაკისეული

Most frequently used suffixes of the negative evaluation are: -ard, -ster, -aster, -eeror half-
affix -monger: drunkard, scandal-monger, black-marketeer, mobster.

Considering the problem of expressive affixes differentiation should be made between

negative affixes such as in-, un~, ir-, поп-, etc. {unbending, irregular, non-profit) and
evaluative derogatory affixes. Evaluative affixes with derogatory connotations demonstrate
the speaker's attitude to the phenomenon while negative affixes normally represent objects
and phenomena that are either devoid of some quality or do not exist at all (e. g. a non-profit
organization has mostly positive connotations).

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Stylistic syntax

Syntactical categories have long been the object of stylistic research. There are different
syntactical means and different classifications. The purpose of this paragraph is to consider
the basic techniques that create stylistic function on the syntactical level and is shared by
most stylistic figures of this type.

It is maintained that the major principles at work on the sentence level are the following:

I. The omission or absence of one or more parts of the sentence.

II. Repetition of some parts of a sentence.

III. The inverted word order.

IV. The interaction of adjacent sentences.

The omission of core, functional parts of a sentence results in ellipsis of various types.
Consequently, an elliptical sentence is a sentence with one or more of the parts left out. As a
rule, the omitted part can be easily reconstructed from the context which makes elliptical
sentences sound like colloquial casual talk.

In fiction elliptical sentences have several stylistic functions. First of all, they create a sense
of immediacy and give the sentence a local colouring. Besides, they may add to the
character's psychological portrait, therefore, to a better understanding of a mood or a
disposition of a personage.

“Wish I was young enough to wear that kind of thing. Older I get the more I like colour.
We're both pretty long in the tooth, eh?” (Waugh).

Elliptical sentences are frequently used in represented speech because syntactically, as we

have seen, it resembles direct speech. The use of elliptical sentences in fiction is not limited
to conversation. They are sometimes used in the author's narration and in the exposition
(description which opens a chapter or a book).

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“I remember now, that Sita's braid did not hurt. It was only soft and heavy, smelling of
Castile soap, but still I yelled as though something terrible was happening. Stop! Get off! Let
go! Because I couldn't stand how strong she was”. (Erdrich)

A variety of ellipsis in English is a one-member nominal sentence. They have no separate

subject and predicate, but one main part instead. Nominal sentences are often used in
descriptive narration and give a passage more dynamism. One-member sentences are also
common in stage remarks and represented speech.

“Match books. Coaster trays. Hotel towels and washcloths. He was sending her the samples
of whatever he was selling at the time. Fuller brushes. Radio antennas. Cans of hair spray or
special wonder-working floor cleaners. (Erdrich)

II. Repetition is never a mechanical repetition of a word or structure. When used in fiction,
repretition is always accompanied by some additional connotations due to the fact that
repretitions usually emphases not the denotative but the connotative meaning.

The following different types of repetition may be classified on the compositional principle:

Anaphora is the repetition of the same element at the beginning of two or more successive
clauses, sentences or verses. “They were poor in space, poor in light, poor in quiet, poor in
repose, and poor in the atmosphere of privacy—poor in everything that makes a man's home
his castle. (Cheever)

Framing is an arrangement of repeated elements at the beginning and at the end of one or
more sentences that creates a kind of structural encasement. He had been good for me when
I was a callow and an ignorant youth; he was good for me now. (Shute)

Epiphora involves the repetition of certain elements at the end of two or more successive
clauses, sentences or paragraphs. “Trouble is, I don't know if I want a business or not. Or
even if I can pay for it, if I did want it”.(Shute)

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III. Inversion is breaking up the normal order of words, which is an important stylistic and
semantic feature of English.

By changing the logical order, this device helps to convey new shades of meaning. In case of
inversion, the denotative meaning of the structure remains unchanged, but the emotive
colouring is different.

Galperin describes five types of inversion that are connected with the fixed syntactical
position of the sentence members. Each type of inversion produces a specific stylistic effect:
for instance, in some cases, it may render an elevated tone to the narration:

Of beechen green, and shadows numberless, Singest of summer in full-throated ease. (Keats)

Into a little round place at the side of the apple has been gathered all of its sweetness
(Anderson);

As well as this, inversion may contribute to the humorous effect of the description or speech
characterization, as in the following example: To march about you would not like us?
suggested the station master. (Waugh)

Sky overcast all day till evening. (Beckett)

შეწყდა შემდეგ ხმაურობა და ცეცხლთა ფრქვევა არმაზის მხარეს (ბარნოვი,1943:342);
ნაპრალში შხუის, სჩქეფს და ხტის მდინარე (ლორთქიფანიძე,1958:212);

Interaction of adjacent sentences is a compositional syntactical technique. One of the major

emphatic means is the use of parallel constructions. They are similarly built and used in close
succession. Parallel constructions create a certain rhythmical arrangement of speech. The
sameness of the structure stresses the difference or the similarity of the meaning. Sometimes
parallel constructions assume a peculiar form and the word order of the first phrase is
inverted in the second. The resulting device is called chiasmus. It is often accompanied by a
lexical repetition: Work— work—work!/From weary chime to chime/Work— work—work
As prisoners work for crime! Band, and gusset, and seam Seam, and gusset, and band.. (Hood)

128
Stylistic devices and means (that you already know) can also be discussed from the point of
syntactic stylistics . For instance, as wel have already discussed anobe, the climax is such an
arrangement of a series of clauses or phrases that form an ascending scale, in which each of
the sentences is stronger in intensity of expression than the previous one. “We're nice people
and there isn't going to be room for nice people any \ more. It's ended, it's all over, it's dead.
(Cheever);

On the other hand, anticlimax, a figure of speech that consists of the usually sudden
transition in discourse from a significant idea to a trivial or ludicrous one. Alexander Pope’s
The Rape of the Lock uses anticlimax liberally; an example is Here thou, great Anna, whom
three realms obey, Dost sometimes counsel take, and sometimes tea. (Britannica)

All these examples show that stylistic potentials of grammatical forms are great enough.
Stylistic analysis of a work of art among other things should include the analysis of the
grammatical level that enables a student to capture the subtle shades of mood or rhythmical
arrangement or the dynamics of the composition.

Practice Session

1. Answer the following questions:

1.What are the basic principles of stylistic grammar? How does grammatical metaphor
correlate with lexical metaphor? Provide your examples

2. Which grammatical category has the highest potential of grammatical transpotision?

Justify your opinion with arguments.

3. Describe the types of grammatical , transposition and provide your own examples to
illustrate each type.

4. Consider the following sentences and comment on the function of morphological

grammatical categories and parts of speech that create stylistic function:

1. One night I am standing in front of Mindy's restaurant on Broadway, thinking of

practically nothing whatever, when all of a sudden I feel a very terrible pain in my left foot.
(Runyon)

129
2. It's good, that, to see you again, Mr. Philip, said Jim. (Caldwell)

3. Earth colours are his theme. When he shows up at the door, we see that he's even dressing
in them. His pants are grey. His shin is the same colour as his skin. Flesh colour. (Erdrich)

6. The following poem, besides grammatical, includes several stylistic means as well.
Characterise them:

The faint fresh flame of the young year flushes

From leaf to flower and from flower to fruit

And fruit and leaf are as gold and fire.(Swinbum)

7. Now, the Andorrans were a brave, warlike people centuries ago, as everybody was at
one time or another—for example, take your Assyrians, who are now extinct; or your
Swedes, who fought in the Thirty Years' War but haven't done much since except lie in
the sun and turn brown... (Berger)

8. A gaunt and Halloweenish grin was plastered to her face. (Erdrich)

9. walked past Mrs. Shumway, who jerked her head around in a startled woodpeckerish
way... (Erdrich)

10. That's not the Mr. Littlejohn I used to know. (Waugh)

11. They are all being so formal. Let's play a game to break the ice. (Bell)

12. Let him say his piece, the darling. Isn't he divine? (Waugh)

13. It never was the individual sounds of a language, but the melodies behind them, that
Dr. Rosenbaum imitated. For these his ear was Mozartian. (Jarrell)

14.“Heaven remained rigidly in its proper place on the other side of death, and on this
side flourished the injustices, the cruelties, the meannesses, that elsewhere people so
cleverly hushed up. (Green)

5. State if the following statements are True or False

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 1 Stylistic properties of grammatical categories are well studied T F
2 Stylistic effect ignores the opposition between the norm and deviation T F
3 Grammatical form possesses the similar components of meaning to lexical T F
units
4 Sustained compositional metaphors may be created by the grammatical T F
valency of personal pronouns
5 Inversion is breaking up the normal order of words T F
6 Framing means an arrangement of repeated elements only at the end of T F
sentences

CHAPTER 9

Stylistics and Narratology

Point of view

In “The Stylistics of Fiction” (1990) Michael Toolan describes “extra-diegetic” (outside the
story) versus “intra-diegetic“(inside the story) narration introduced by Genette(1980),
„covert narrator“ versus overt narrator by Chatman (1978), and „focalization“ (a
narratological term for point of view) by Genette and later by Bal (1985).

Both stylistics and narratology have paid much attention to the point of view or focalization.
Moreover, focalization forms one of the few overlapping areas of investigation between the
two disciplines. Leech and Short (2007: 139–141) directed attention to “fictional point of
view,” that is, “the slanting12 of the fictional world towards “reality” as understood by a
12
გადახრა

131
particular participant, or a group of participants, in the fiction.” While discussing
focalization, Genette (1980, pp. 185–211) distinguishes between who speaks (voice) and who
sees (eye); The way the character speaks, or retells a story is a matter of narration whereas
the way their story is understood (perceived) by readers/listeners is the scope of
focalization.

Depending on a type of text, point of view can function on different planes (spatial,
psychological), it can vary regarding the mode of narration (first-person versus third-person,
etc). As well as this, the same story can be narrated (retold) from different perspectives by
two or more witnesses from the first-person narrative perspective. Or, on the other hand,
the same story can be retold by the narrator from various points of view.

The first-person narration implies that the story is retold from the point of view of the
person experiencing it whereas in the case of the third-person narration the viewpoint of a
character who describes the experience is adopted. Leech and Short refer to third-person
narration as a “relatively objective viewpoint”, and the first-person narrations are
characterised by relative subjectivity of viewpoint. However, it is also a well-known fact
that in third-person narration, readers can see a very subjective point of view as in many
stream-of-consciousness novels.

Another associated term we would like to define here is “point of view”. In special literature
dedicated to Stylistics, point of view refers to the angle 13 or the perspective from which
certain events or thoughts are narrated. Specifically, we would like to repeat that from the
first-person narrative, events are seen and told by the same person whereas, in third-person
narration, the narrator/storyteller and viewer of the action/event/thoughts are told by
different people.

Compare the following examples: (1) “I gazed – and gazed – but little thought/What wealth
the show to me had brought.” 14. In this example, the daffodils are seen from the first-person
perspective: the poet describes them, from his own point of view, how the beautiful flowers
are perceived by him. Another part of the poem illustrates the view point.

(2) I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
13
კუთხე, თვალაზრისი
14
“Daffodils”by William Wordsworth

132
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
and twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
From his point of view, lonely as a cloud (an interesting simile) Worsworth sees “host of
golden” flowers and the way he perceives them.

(3) “When Jane and Elizabeth were alone, the former, who had been cautious in her praise
of Mr Bingley before, expressed to her sister how very much she admired him.” 15 In this
example, Jane and Elizabeth are presented through the perspective of the narrator. What is
more interesting, both of the girls are talking about Mr Bingley and this act is presented by
the author from the third –person point of view.

Another example from I. Chavchavadze also describes the first passage from his “Letters of a
traveller”. In this extract the first-person narration is employed while describing the overall
setting of the story as well as his personal attitudes to the events. The indicators used are
first person pronouns and “inclusive we” which implies that the author identifies himself
with a specific situation or a group of people:

(4) “დილის ექვსი საათი შესრულდა თუ არა, იმ სასტუმროს წინ, რომელიშიაც მე წინა
ღამეს ჩამოვხტი, რუსის პირდაუბანელმა და თავდაუვარცხნელმა „იამშჩიკმა“
ფოშტის პოვოსკა მოაყენა. ეს იყო ვლადიკავკასში. საკვირველია! რუსის მხატვრების
სურათებზედ რა ლამაზად არის ხოლმე გამოყვანილი ამ სქელკისერა „იამშჩიკის“
ბრიყვი სახე, იმისი ოყრაყული სანახაობა, იმისი მიდუნ-მოდუნებული ზლაზვნა,
უადამიანო და პირუტყვული მიხვრა-მოხვრა. რამოდენადაც სურათია კარგი, ორ
იმოდენად საძაგელია ნამდვილი. მაგრამ ამბობენ: И дым отечества нам сладок и
приятен. კვამლის სიტკბოებაზედ კი უკაცრავად, და სიამოვნებაზედ კი ამას
მოგახსენებთ, რომ კვამლი ფრიად სასიამოვნოა, - პირველი იმისათვის, რომ კვამლი
თვალს ეფარება და მართლჭვრეტას უშლის, მეორე იმისათვის, რომ კვამლი ხშირად
თვალიდამ ცრემლს გვაყრევინებს ხოლმე. ოჰ, მამულის კვამლო, მართლა-და

15
J. Austin

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ტკბილი და სასიამოვნო ხარ: ხანდისხან ისე აგვიბამ თვალებს ხოლმე, რომ ჩვენ ჩვენს
საკუთარს უბედურებასაც ვერა ვხედავთ”.
Besides the above-mentioned, a story may be told from the second-person perspective. In
this case, the author uses indicators including address forms, personal and possessive
pronouns (you, yours)

(5) ”You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the
morning. But here you are, and you cannot say that the terrain is entirely unfamiliar,
although the details are fuzzy.” 16

In this example, McInerney describes the author’s attitude to the place desrcibed through
the second –person perspective.

(6) “Many people in the Virginia Inn were barking. Yes, barking! There they were, Seattle’s
poets, painters, musicians, and filmmakers; people whom one would guess might be cultured
and sophisti- cated; but were they discussing Godel, Escher, or Bach; were they casting a
particularly illuminating light upon the stock-market crash, relating it to McLuhanian
technology theory or “The Fall of the House of Usher”? Maybe they were at that. [...] All
you know is that you [...] did hear an inordinate amount of barking.17

This extract is taken from “Half asleep in Frog’s pajamas” by Robbins and describes the
situation around the stock-market crash of 1929 in America. Absurdity and chaos of the
situation are perceived by the author through the key word “barking” and the author’s
position is seen through the same lexical item, as well.

The second person narration is employed to enable the reader to enjoy the first-hand
experience of act as the protagonist and thus make the writing more persuasive and
effective.

The third-person point of view allows the author to be like a movie camera moving to any
set and recording any event. It also allows the camera to slide behind the eyes of any
character, but “beware—do it too often or awkwardly, and you will lose your reader very
quickly. When using the third person, don't get in your characters' heads to show the reader
their thoughts, but rather let their actions and words lead the reader to figure those thoughts
out." 18

16
J. McInerney
17
Robbins .
18
(Bob Mayer, "The Novel Writer's Toolkit: A Guide to Writing Novels and Getting Published" (Writer's Digest
Books, 2003)

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Based on the model by Uspensky (1973), Roger Fowler (1996) offered a model with four
components (spatial, temporal, psychological and ideological). Understandably, the spatial
point of view characterizes the event from the “viewing” position adopted by a narrator
(Neary, 2014). In other words, it represents the visual angle from which an action, event or
object is perceived (Chatman 1978). As well as this, spatial point of view is manifested in
films and other visual arts as well as in literature, when critics talk about the “camera angle”
found by the author of the text.

The spatial categories are indicated in the text by personal and demonstrative pronouns, by
tenses and a variety of other grammatical and lexical features. There are different types or
categories of deixis: person deixis (I, you, she, etc.), demonstrative pronouns and adjectives
(this and that), definite articles, spatial adverbs (now and then), locative expressions (here
and there) and tenses and temporal categories.

Temporal point of view describes time as perceived by the narrator. Specifically, it may
describe ‘the impression which a reader gains of events moving rapidly or slowly, in a
continuous chain or isolated segments’ (Fowler 1986, p. 127). In this theory, the temporal
viewpoint can be described through the following strategies (analepsis (flashbacks), prolepsis
(flashforwards) and narrative gaps. For examples, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman uses
flashback to narrate Willy Loman’s memories of the past. At one moment, Willy talks with
his dead brother while playing cards with Charley. He relives a past conversation in the
present. This demonstrates a character that is physically living in the present, but mentally
living in the memories and events of the past.

Another example of flashbacks is “The Birches” by Robert Frost. In this poem, the author
uses flashback as a pathway of his life he would like to return: “So was I once myself a
swinger of birches. And so I dream of going back to be” or “I’d like to get away from earth
awhile, and then come back to it and begin over.”

The “The Sound and The Fury” by Faulkner provides with a number of flashbacks while
describing the character’s emotions. A writer applies a stream of consciousness technique
where a reader reveals the character’s unspoken thoughts and feelings. In order to
emphasize mental Benji’s and Quentin’s mental states, the author uses internal analepsis
(flashback) in the narrative. So, it means that Benjy Compson recalls the earliest events via
flashbacks. In the novel. Benji’s present and past memory is measured between 1898 when
he turns three and April 7, 1928 his thirty-third birthday. Faulkner identifies April Seventh,
1928 as the narrative present. As Benjy has no concept of time or place, sensory stimuli in
the present bring him back to another time and place in the past. Faulkner utilizes

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punctuation to indicate the shift of time, so flashbacks are expressed in italics. The italics
signal to the reader that there is a shift in time, which is usually sudden. (Vepkhvadze, 2019)

The functions of a flashback are as follows: it may convey to the readers information
regarding the character’s background, and therefore give the readers an idea of the
character’s motives for behaving in a certain way later in the story. Consequently, a
flashback may be used to deepen inner conflict of the character. In some cases it may
provide stimulus for the conflict, explain hidden motives and open the character’s inner
world. On the other hand, the flashback may be used in poetry to describe the poet’s
happiness and longing to the time when he was happy and careless. This was the case with
the poem by Robert Frost.

Flash-forward is another interesting strategy used by many writers to make their work more
attractive to readers. For instance, “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens depicts the
character Scrooge in a flash-forward scene when he is visited by the ghost and shown his
own future. The flash-forward is a life changing experience for Scrooge and changes his
lifestyle, and becomes kind and generous. Therefore, the function of the flash-forward is to
provide the reader with a logical explanation to the actions of the characters in a narrative.

The ideological plane of point of view, or a conceptual point of view (Chatman ,1978) is seen
as ‘how a text expresses and communicates a set of particular ideological beliefs through
either character, narrator or author’ (Chatman, 2004: 78). Fowler maintains that the
ideological plane of point of view is “the set of values, or belief system, communicated by
the language of the text’ (Fowler 1996, p. 165). The stylistic and narratological discussions of
the temporal and spatial aspects are complementary to each other.

In terms of the ‘psychological’ point of view, Fowler observes that it ‘concerns the question
of who is presented as the observer of the events of a narrative, whether it is the author or a
participating character’ (1986, p. 134). The psychological plane of point of view “refers to
how a narrative can be manifested through an individual perception, be that of a character
or a narrator.” ( Neary, 178). As well as this, Neary claims that depictions of the spatial and
temporal viewpoint can also be considered representations of a character/narrator’s
psychological point of view.

For instance, In D.H Lawrence’s „Sons and Lovers‟, Paul Morel is unusually dependent on
his mother‟s care. The real reason for this is his neurosis in his early years which makes him
self-conscious when he grows up. Paul turns into hypersensitive introvert to whom any
touch with the reality is an agonizing experience. He suffers very much from the

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first contact with anything. For instance, his first visit to school is a nightmare for him.
When he goes to collect the wages of his father, he suffers at heart just because the
people working there speak to him in their improper manner. Paul feels the entire
experience so tormenting that he resolves never to go there again. Later, when he is
required to look for a job, he goes through the same agonies again. By describing the
psychological portrait of his hero, Lawrence describes the effects of the overwhelming
affection of a mother on the sons. (16) (PDF) Psychological Angst in James Joyce A
portrait of an artistas a young man and D.H Lawrence Sons and lovers: a comparative
exegesis. Available from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269465225_Psychological_Angst_in_James_Joyce
_A_portrait_of_an_artistas_a_young_man_and_DH_Lawrence_Sons_and_lovers_a_compara
tive_exegesis [accessed Mar 05 2020]. The perception of the protagonist becomes easier
based on the understanding of how the character/narrator’s belief and knowledge systems
influence their understanding, and hence their representation, of their spatio-temporal
viewpoint.(Neary 178).

Another example Fowler gives discussing the psychological point of view is Dickens’s “Hard
Times”, where ‘various groups of characters represent and voice several different social
theories’ and the points of view’ constantly challenge and contradict each other ( Fowler
1986: 131).

Point of view is frequently described through a stylistic technique referred to as a speech

and thought presentation.

As well as this, Rimmon-Kenan is aware of this blurring 19 of distinctions as she observes, ‘A

character may represent an ideological position through his way of seeing the world or his
behaviour in it, but also—like Raskolnikov (Dostoevsky) through explicit discussion of his
ideology. ... Thus, in addition to its contribution to focalization, ideology also plays a part in
the story (characters), on the one hand, and in narration, on the other’ (2002: 83; Shen,
2104). To have a clearer picture, we may confine ideological point of view to the
focalizer’s/the active character’s way(s) of seeing the world, and discuss how ideological
point of view interacts with characters’ spoken words and other elements to convey the total
set of values of the text. (Shen 2014).

Let us take a look at the following passage taken from Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” as
discussed by Shen (2014):

19
Blur- make unclear, less distinct, ბუნდოვანება

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“ {1} He was anxious to avoid the notice of his cousins, from a conviction that if they saw
him depart, they could not fail to conjecture his design ... [2] His reception, however, was of
the most flattering kind. [3] Miss Lucas perceived him from an upper window [4] as he
walked towards the house, and [5] instantly set out to meet him accidentally in the lane.
(1980, pp. 109–110, the authors’ numbering)

In this extract, [1] and [3] have an internal point of view, (because these sentences describe
the internal emotions of the character whereas [2], [4] and [5] display external point of view
expressed by actions. On the other hand, in [1] and [3] the characters’ thoughts or
perceptions are only viewed from the point of view of the omniscient20 narrator – we
perceive the characters’ inner life as well as their outward behaviour through the eye of the
narrator.

The point of view can be of different types based on the criterion of the degree of
knowledge possessed about some event described in the text – omniscient, limited and
limited omniscient. In the first case, the narrator knows all of the thoughts and feelings of all
of the characters in the story, whereas in the case of limited point of view, the narrator
relates only their thoughts, feelings, and knowledge about various situations and the other
characters.

In limited third-person omniscient, the narrator is a spectator of events and is unable to read
any other character’s mind as in the description below:

“He was dressed in an old plain khaki uniform, with several buttons lacking. He hadn't
recently shaved, wore no hat, and his hair had not been brushed. He walked a little pigeon-
toed, humped over, with his hands in his trousers pockets. As he entered the aisle between
the rigid lines of soldiers he seemed slightly embarrassed, and grinned and nodded to a
friend here and there in the ranks. At the foot of the grand staircase, Governor Chao and
Secretary of State Terrazas joined him in full-dress uniform. The band threw off all restraint,
and, as Villa entered the audience chamber, at a signal from someone in the balcony of the
palace, the great throng in the Plaza de Armas uncovered, and all the brilliant crowd of
officers in the room saluted stiffly. It was Napoleonic! “ (“The Rise of Pancho Villa” in
Insurgent Mexico by John Reed (1913)

An omniscient narrator can see through what each character does and read the character’s
mind and explain their behaviour. It is maintained that the omniscient narrator can be
compared to an external character, observing the action from above. For example, in

20
Omniscient- having or seeming to have unlimited knowledge:

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“Middlemarch” by Elliot, the narrator is referred to be as one of its most distinct stylistic
features. The narrator here is an omniscient being that combines first-person and third-
person points of view. Interestingly, objectiveness and impartiality of narration are pointed
out many times by the narrator.

For instance, having described the feelings of Mr Casaubon about Will. Ladislaw, the
narrator adds and must not we, being impartial, feel for him too?”. First of all, the
employment of the inclusive “we” invites the reader to share the responsibility of the
analysis. As well as this, the declaration of impartiality and fairness on part of the narrator
once again convinces the reader in the truthful description of the events. “Thus while I tell
the truth about loobies, my reader’s imagination need not be entirely excluded from an
occupation with lords.” Once again, in this sentence, despite the use of “I”, the narrator
remains an omniscient observer of facts and events unfolding in the novel. As well as this,
by focusing on third-person narration, the narrator remains an observer and knower of the
thoughts and actions of all key players in the novel.

The limited omniscient narrator is focused on only one character’s mind. He/she might see
other events as well but looks at them through the prism of the character’s actions in the
story. For instance, the extract from Harry Potter is written from only Harry whereas the
Dursley’s attitude to Harry is not clear.

“Harry had taken up his place at wizard school, where he and his scar were famous … but
now the school year was over, and he was back with the Dursleys for the summer, back to
being treated like a dog that had rolled in something smelly … The Dursleys hadn’t even
remembered that today happened to be Harry’s twelfth birthday. Of course, his hopes hadn’t
been high?” https://literarydevices.net/omniscient/

The third-person omniscient point of view is the most objective and trustworthy viewpoint
because an all-knowing narrator is telling the story. This narrator usually has no biases or
preferences and also has full knowledge of all the characters and situations

Characterisation

Both stylisticians and narratologists are often concerned with the way linguistic choices are
used in depicting or characterising fictional characters. For instance, Rimmon-Kenan (2002:
59–71) distinguishes three modes of the character’s presentation: direct characterisation,
indirect characterization, and reinforcement by analogy. In the first case, the character is
depicted through the authorial narrator’s straightforward definition of a character’s traits:

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‘Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy
disposition.’

Charectrisation as a stylistic and narratology strategy, is frequently emplopyed by writers.

However, literary critiques often refer to “ The Great Gatsby” as one of the best and
frequenly quoted novels in this respect. Fitsgerald defines his characters in an interesting
way: Tom is defined by his wealth and Gatsby is referred to as someone having a voice “full
of money”. The contrast between the West egg versus the East Egg is also symbolic. This
division is reinforced at the end of the novel when Nick supports Gatsby against the rest of
the people. The same can be said about the occupations of the characters.

Gatsby is characterized as having “one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal
reassurance in it […]. It face[s] – or seem[s] to face – the whole eternal world for an instant
[…]. It [understands] you just so far as you wanted to be understood […], and assure[s] you
that it [has] precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you [hope] to convey (Gatsby,
54).

From the very start it becomes clear that “Gatsby represented everything for which I [Nick}
have an unaffected scorn.” But he “turned out all right at the end” (Gatsby, 8); Although Jay
is a bootlegger and makes up interesting rumors about his past, he is always candid in his
relationships towards other people. To Nick, he is “worth the whole damn bunch put
together” (Gatsby, 160).

The second mode of the character's presentation is ‘indirect presentation’, which implies
the displaying a character’s traits through depicting a character from the point of view of
their actions, speech pattern, external appearance, or environment. Next, Rimmon-Kenan
further expands on these four areas into sub-categories. Action, for instance, is divided into
one-time action and habitual action; On the other hand, external appearance is also
classified into two categories: those external features beyond the character’s control (e.g.
height, colour of eyes or shape of hands) and those at least partly dependent on the character
(e.g. hairstyle and clothes). The third mode of characterisation is ‘reinforcement by analogy,’
further classified into ‘analogous names,’ ‘analogous landscape’ and ‘analogy between
characters.’ (Shen, 2014).

One of the examples of this kind of characterization is the following extract from “To kill a
mocking bird “ by Harper  Lee:

“Mrs. Dubose lived alone except for a Negro girl in constant attendance, two doors up the
street from us in a house with steep front steps and a dog-trot hall. She was very old; she

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spent most of each day in bed and the rest of it in a wheelchair. It was rumored that she kept
a CSA pistol concealed among her numerous shawls and wraps. Jem and I hated her. If she
was on the porch when we passed, we would be raked by her wrathful gaze, subjected to
ruthless interrogation regarding our behavior, and given a melancholy prediction on what
we would amount to when we grew up, which was always nothing. We had long ago given
up the idea of walking past her house on the opposite side of the street; that only made her
raise her voice and let the whole neighborhood in on it. We could do nothing to please her.
If I said as sunnily as I could, "Hey, Mrs. Dubose," I would receive for an answer, "Don't you
say hey to me, you ugly girl! You say good afternoon, Mrs. Dubose!"”

The example below describes the character through the character’s description of his life:

“When I was quite a young boy,' said Uriah, 'I got to know what humbleness did, and I took
to it. I ate umble pie with an appetite. I stopped at the umble point of my learning, and says
I, "Hard hard!" When you offered to teach me Latin, I knew better. "People like to be above
you," says father, "keep yourself down." I am very umble to the present moment, Master
Copperfield, but I've got a little power!'"

Finally, in the “reinforcement by analogy” analogy is treated as a reinforcement for

characterization rather than a separate type of trait-indicator. For instance, Mr. Know-All;
Mr. Little. Sometimes two characters are presented in similar circumstances allowing
comparisons to take place and define traits.

Based on this classification, Jonathan Culpeper makes a distinction among ‘explicit,’

‘implicit,’ and ‘authorial’ characterisation cues in texts, each of which is further classified
into various sub-categories (Culpeper 2001: 164–233). “Implicit’ cues are further subdivided
according to the conversational structure, conversational implicature, lexis, syntactic
feature, accent and dialect, verse and prose, paralinguistic features, visual features, a
character’s company and setting. (Culpeper 2001).

On the other hand, unlike statisticians, narratologists, in general, are not interested in
stylistic details.However, they are concerned with the distinction and definition of various
structural narrative modes. These two approaches complement each other. Specifically,
stylistic analysis helps to identify linguistic choices which contribute to characterization,
whereas the narratological distinctions may help to form useful frameworks for stylistic
investigation.

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Characterization is an essential component in writing good literature. Understanding the role
of characterization in storytelling is very important for any writer. It helps the readers to
better interpret the behavior of any character by understanding their thought processes and
motivations.

Voice

According to Dean, "understanding voice gives students an appreciation for the richness of
language and a deeper understanding of literature. Through voice we come to know authors;
by exploring voice we learn to wield language" (Dean 1995, xii). It is also maintained that
voice in literature is the manifestation of an individual style of the author. However, there
is a distinction between them.

Voice can be described as a developed way of writing that sets you apart from other writers.
The author’s personality is made up through the voice, language use and word choice. On
the other hand, Style is much broader than voice. Some writers have a writing style that’s
very ornate—long, complex and beautiful sentences, packed with metaphors and imagery
(Oscar Wilde, Gamsakhurdia); others have a more straightforward style—sparse prose,
simple sentences, etc. (Hemingway). Voice can be described through many different literary
devices and stylistic techniques, including the layers of the language (morphology, syntax,
semantics), strategies of development of the plot and story (diction, dialogue, character
development, tone, pacing, and even punctuation). Voice is part of the devices which make
up a unique style and may include point of view, symbolism, tone, imagery, diction, voice,
syntax, and the method of narration.

The frequently cited example illustrating the voice is Martin Luther King’s specific and
unique voice while pronouncing his famous speech:

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not
be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream
today!”

Another example to demonatrate the author’s voice cited here is from “The Raven” by Poe:

“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

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“’ Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—

Only this and nothing more.”

Edgar Allen Poe used many dark, depressing and mysterious lexical items in his writing. His
poem “The Raven” goes insane as he believes he has lost the love of his life and the raven is
the only creature that will not leave him alone. As well as this, in his poetry Poe
experiments with more rolling rhythms and differing line lengths.

Konstantine Gamsakhurdia is the first author whose works come to mind when talking
about voice in Georgian literature. His unique style, employment of obsolete and archaic
lexical items, syntactical structures and discourse strategies give his works a unique and
unforgettable flavour.

Speech and thought representation

Some of the contexts involved in stylistic analysis are more restrictedly literary, for example,
the question of point of view, the narrative situation, mood or voice; others contexts can be
more conceptual, involving the reading conventions that “trigger an interpretation in terms
of speech or thought representation” (Leech and Short 1993: 7)
According to Leech and Short, the ‘norms’ for speech and thought presentation differ greatly.
The three major types of speech representation are direct speech, indirect speech, and free
indirect speech. 

Direct speech implies reporting via direct speech forms. Due to this, it may include many
features that dramatize how an utterance was produced. For instance, it may also include
verbs that indicate the speaker's manner of expression and his attitude to the speech act (e.g.
cry, exclaim, gasp), voice quality (e.g. mutter, scream, whisper), and type of emotion (e.g.
giggle, laugh, sob). Direct speech can also include adverbs (e.g. angrily, brightly, cautiously,
hoarsely, quickly, slowly) and descriptions of the reported speaker's style and tone of voice. 
“I have some good news," she whispered mischievously.
"What is it?" he snapped immediately.
"Can't you guess?" she giggled.
"Oh, no! Don't tell me you're pregnant" he wailed, with a whining nasal sound in his voice. 
https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-direct-speech-1690393

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Indirect Speech ( IS) or reported speech/thought represents the utterance from the current,
not original, speaker’s perspective. Formally ID is characterized by a tense shift, a deictic
shift, and a less literal reproduction of the original wording. 
“I promise I won’t be late” and he promised he would not be late.

FIS (Free Indirect Speech)

FIS  is considered to be the least frequent category of speech presentation (Semino& Short,
2004). On the other hand, being a mixture of direct and indirect features, FIS is believed to
be linguistically more complex than other forms of representation. There maybe lexical,
grammatical or deictic markers of subjectivity (Semino & Short, 2004). FIS is characterized
by the author’s increased control of conversations and the reader is distanced from the
character’s words (Leech & Short, 2003). This way FIS allows the author to guide the reader’s
sympathy towards certain characters. This is achieved through maintaining the features from
both sources, the authorial commentary and the sentence structure characteristic of the
protagonist: “Once, a year or two into their marriage, he had confessed to her that he found
the presence of small children unbearably agitating: the unmodulated noise, the strewn
plastic toys, the inarticulate demands that you provide something, fix something, though you
didn't know what it was”. (’Winter Break” by H. Mantel-taken from Kvantaliani, 2014).

The following extract from Hemingway is based on stylistic implications of Indirect Speech
and Free Indirect Speech. The difference between IS and FIS is that IS (reported
speech/thought) typically represents the utterance form the current, not original, speaker’s
perspective. Formally IS is characterized by a tense shift, a deictic shift, and a less literal
reproduction of the original wording. On the other hand, FIS has the characteristics of both,
DS and IS in that it maintains the features of both DS (the sentence is still interrogative and
is not a dependent clause) and IS (the tense forms and pronouns shift to the IS model).
“The American lady admired my wife’s travelling-coat, and (1) it turned out that the
American lady had bought her clothes for twenty years now from the same Maison de
couture in the rue Saint Honoré. (2) They had her measurements, and a vendeuse who knew
her and her tastes picked the dresses out for her and they were sent to America. (3) They
came to the post-office near where she lived up-town in New York, and the duty was never
exorbitant because they opened the dresses there in the post-office to appraise them and they
were always very simple-looking and with no gold lace or ornaments that would make the
dresses look expensive. (4) Before the present vendeuse, named Thérèse, there had been
another vendeuse, named Amélie. (5) Altogether there had only been these two in the

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twenty years. (6) It had always been the same couturier. (7) Prices, however, had gone up.
(8) The exchange, however, equalized that. (9) They had her daughter’s measurements now
too. (10) She was grown up and there was no chance of their changing now”. (Hemingway,
2004).

On the one hand, there are elements of Indirect Speech, which describe what the older
woman was talking about (“The American lady admired my wife’s travelling-coat” and the
pronouns “her” concerning the Lady’s daughter.). The constant repetition of some words
(vendeuse, dresses, measurements etc) sarcastically emphasizes the emptiness of the Lady’s
preoccupations. The lady’s everlasting “chattering” annoys the young man. In this case, FIS is
used to express Heminguay’s sarcastic attitude to her.

Free indirect thought provides insight “into the active mind of the character “. Literary
critics and narratologists use a variety of names for this technique of providing access to
character consciousness. Interestingly, Jane Austin is often cited as the initiator of the style
(see Lodge (1990)), and there has been a particular focus on the nineteenth- and early
twentieth-century novel. Leech and Short maintain that nineteenth- and twentieth-century
novelists frequently portrayed the internal drama of the minds of their characters’ (2007:).
The representation of character’s consciousness is still a popular topic in studies of the novel.
Bray ( 2014) discusses free indirect thought in the late nineteenth-century novel using the
example from Henry James’s “The Portrait of a Lady” (1881). This episode comes after the
American heroine Isabel Archer has turned down her English suitor Lord Warburton:
 ” Isabel herself was upset, but she had not been affected as she would have imagined.What
she felt was not a great responsibility, a great difficulty of choice; it appearedto her there had
been no choice in the question. She couldn’t marry Lord Warburton; the idea failed to
support any enlightened prejudice in favour of the free exploration of life that she had
hitherto entertained or was now capable of entertaining. She must write this to him, she
must convince him, and that duty was comparatively simple. But what disturbed her, in the
sense that it struck her with wonderment, was this very fact that it cost her so little to refuse
a magnificent ‘chance.’ With whatever qualifications one would, Lord Warburton had
offered her a great opportunity; the situation might have discomforts, might contain
oppressive, might contain narrowing elements, might prove really but a stupefying anodyne;
but she did her sex no injustice in believing that nineteen women out of twenty would have
accommodated themselves to it without a pang. Why then upon her should it not irresistibly
impose itself? Who was she, what was she, that she should hold herself superior? What view

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of life, what design upon fate, what conception of happiness, had she that pretended to be
larger than these large, these fabulous occasions? If she wouldn’t do such a thing as that then
she must do great things, she must do something greater. (1995 [1881]” 130–131).  

According to the author of the analysis, this passage contains a number of the classic markers
of free indirect thought which have been commonly identified in many critical essays. In
particular, the entry into Isabel’s consciousness from the third sentence onwards is signalled
by cues such as a frequent use of modality (‘She couldn’t marry Lord Warburton’; ‘She must
write this to him, she must convince him’), coupled with lexical items which suggest a
subjective point of view (‘the situation might have discomforts, might contain oppressive,
might contain narrowing elements, might prove really but a stupefying anodyne’), questions
which she is asking herself (‘Why then upon her also should it not irresistibly impose itself?
Who was she, what was she, that she should hold herself superior?’) and what Laurel Brinton
identifies as the ‘co-temporality of narrative past tense with present and future time deictics’
(1980, p. 367) (‘the idea failed to support any enlightened prejudice in favour of the free
exploration of life that she had hitherto entertained or was now capable of entertaining’).
This entry into Isabel Archer’s consciousness through the technique of free indirect thought
is marked by the characteristic combination, in Leech and Short’s words, of ‘the presence of
third-person pronouns and past tense, which correspond with the form of narrative report
and indicate indirectness, along with several features, both positive and negative, indicating
freeness’ (Leech and Short 2007: 261; Bray, 2014).
It is interesting to follow the differences between the presentation of the modes of speech
and thought (Leech and Shor, 2007). They look very much similar but are differently
exploited by writers. (Kvantaliani 2014). Therefore, the effects they create vary from text to
text and make a reader respond differently. 

FDT (Free Direct Thought) exhibits features as different from FDS (Free Direct Speech).   In
speech presentation, the use of direct speech and the free direct speech makes the impression
of the character talking in the reader’ s presence. In instances like this, the degree of
authorial intervention decreases (Kvantaliani, 2014) ‘This roast beef is marvellous, Cindy.
And the green rice. How did you do that?” By frying it lightly first and using plenty of
parsley, Cindy disclosed. She’d be glad to share the recipe. It was the least she could do,
thought Violet, and leaned down to stroke the dog, who’d parked himself beside the chair.
(‘Taste of Dust’, L. Sh. Schwartz).

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 Similarly, when dealing with the Direct Thought ( DT) and the Free Direct Thought ( FDT),
the authorial intervention is minimal; however, the actual result is a monologue, a character
‘talking’ to himself or herself and the thoughts acquire conscious value (Leech, Short, 2003);
Seth circled the table pouring wine (a less than steady hand, Violet noted – anxiety or
Parkinson’s? while Cindy carried platters out from the kitchen. Be sure to say something,
Violet reminded herself. Give credit where it’s due. She probably couldn’t have managed a
dinner on such a grand scale. (‘Taste of Dust’, L. Sh. Schwartz) (as analysed by Kvantaliani
2014). 

 In many cases of FDT quotation marks are omitted; however, reporting verbs are retained.
Finally, FDT is considered to present thoughts which give the impression of having been
mentally verbalized at particularly intense and dramatic moments (Semino & Short 2004;
Kvantaliani 2014).

Practice Session:

1. Answer the following questions:

1. What is the difference between ‘extra-diegetic’ (outside the story) versus ‘intra-diegetic’
(inside the story) narration? Provide your examples

2. Distinguish between and characterize first-, second- and third-person naratives. Provide
your examples

3. What is an equivalent of the second-person narration indicator in Georgian? Provide your

examples

4. Distinguish between and characterize limited, omniscient and limited omniscient.

Provide your examples

5. What are the functions of characterization?

6. Which person narrative is associated with films and the camera and why? Third-person

7. What is the function of characterization?

8. What is the function of spatial-temporal plane of point of view?

9. What is the difference between the flashback and flash-forward? What are their
functions?

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10. Distinguish between the ideological and psychological points of view

11. What is the difference between Voice and Style?

12. Describe the differences between Free indirect Speech and Indirect Speech

13. Describe the differences between Free Indirect Thought and Free Indirect Speech

14. Characterise the components of point of view. Which of them seems more significant to
you? Why?

1. State whether the following statements are True or False

1 Leech and Short refer to third-person narration as a “relatively objective T F
viewpoint.
2 The first-person narrations are characterised by relative subjective T F
viewpoint
3 The limited omniscient narrator can read all the characters’ minds T F
4 FIS is employed to guide the reader’s sympathy towards certain characters T F
5 Charlotte Bronte is considered to be the author of Free Indirect thought T F
6 FIS  is considered to be the most frequent category of speech presentation T F
7 Style is much broader than voice. T F
8 Voice in literature is the manifestation of an individual style of the writer T F

3. Characterise the following from the point of view:

1. If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is
where I was born, an what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied
and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like
going into it, if you want to know the truth (Salinger)

2. It’s this detail, the untucked blouse forming a ducktail, that brings me back to
myself.“Prim!” The strangled cry comes out of my throat, and my muscles begin to move
again. “Prim!” I don’t need to shove through the crowd. The other kids make way
immediately allowing me a straight path to the stage. I reach her just as she is about to

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mount the steps. With one sweep of my arm, I push her behind me. “I volunteer!” I gasp. “I
volunteer as tribute!” (Suzanne Collins).

3. My name is Fabian Vas. I live in Witless Bay, Newfoundland. You would not have
heard of me. Obscurity is not necessarily failure, though; I am a bird artist, and have more or
less made a living at it. Yet I murdered the lighthouse keeper, Botho August, and that is an
equal part of how I think of myself. I discovered my gift for drawing and painting birds early
on. (Norman)-Flashback

4. Decide whether the following extracts express limited third-person or omniscient third-
person view?

1. It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to be frightened. No. Wrong word,
Jonas thought. Frightened meant that deep, sickening feeling of something terrible about to
happen. Frightened was the way he had felt a year ago when an unidentified aircraft had
overflown the community twice. He had seen it both times. Squinting toward the sky, he
had seen the sleek jet, almost a blur at its high speed, go past, and a second later heard the
blast of sound that followed. Then one more time, a moment later, from the opposite
direction, the same plane. (Lois Lowry)-

2. Elizabeth, having rather expected to affront him, was amazed at his gallantry; but
there was a mixture of sweetness and archness in her manner which made it difficult for her
to affront anybody; and Darcy had never been so bewitched by any woman as he was by
her. He really believed, that were it not for the inferiority of her connections, he should be
in some danger. (Jane Austin).

5. Do the following extracts express direct or indirect characterization? Support your

decision and speak about the functions of characterization.

1. Joad took a quick drink from the flask. He dragged the last smoke from his raveling
cigarette and then, with callused thumb and forefinger, crushed out the glowing end. He
rubbed the butt to a pulp and put it out the window, letting the breeze suck it from his
fingers.’ (Steinback)

2. Looking up, there he was – Mr. Ramsay – advancing towards them, swinging,
careless, oblivious, remote. A bit of a hypocrite? she repeated. Oh no – the most sincere of
men, the truest (here he was), the best; but, looking down, she thought, he is absorbed in
himself, he is tyrannical, he is unjust…’ (Woolf).

3. My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

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Coral is far more red than her lips' red;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damasked, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

I grant I never saw a goddess go;

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare. ( Shakespeare)

6. Discuss the following questions

1. Which terms do you think best describe the types of narration: “extra-diegetic” versus
“intra-diegetic“, „covert narrator“ versus overt narrator or „focalization“? Why?

2. Why is first-person narration considered to be subjective and third-person narration –

objective? Can the third-person narration be subjective? Why? Why not?

3. Describe flashback and flashforward in Stylistics, provide your own examples

4. What are the functions of a flashback/ a flashforward? Provide your own examples

5. Describe limited and ominisient representations of point of view. Which of them is more
objective/less objective? Why? Provide your own examples

6. Describe the types and functions of caracterisation. Talk about the ways to distinguish
them, provde examples

7. Describe the interrelationship between voice and style. Which is a broader category?
Why?

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8. Which do you think is the most interesting case of speech and thought representation?
Why?

CHAPTER 10

Stylistics and Contemporary Discourse Studies

Feminist Stylistics

Feminist stylistics is defined as a sub-branch of stylistics which aims to describe how gender
issues are linguistically encoded in texts through employing stylistic categories. It is
maintained that feminist stylisticians usually explore gender and language in literary texts,
but not only.

The term “Feminist stylistics” was first introduced by Sara Mills (1995) who maintains that
feminists believe women as a group are treated oppressively and differently from men and
that they are subject to personal and institutional discrimination. Besides Mills, feminist
stylistics is associated with the works of Deirdre Burton and literary works by Virginia Wolf
and French feminists.

Nowadays, feminist stylistic analysis is concerned not only to describe sexism in a text, but
also to analyse the way through which stylistic categories (point of view, metaphor, or
presentation of thought and speech, etc) are closely related to matters of gender (Mills 1995,

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p. 1). Therefore, feminist stylistics is concerned with unravelling 21 the complex messages that
may be deduced from texts and also with analyzing the way that readers piece together or
resist these messages. (Mills 2006, p. 221).The aim of feminist stylistics, then, is as follows: on
the one hand, analysts investigate the way text employs linguistic features which specifically
project male/ female values and stereotypes; on the other hand, stylisticiams working in
feminist stylistics explore the strategies participants of any discourse (depending on the genre
of discourse) employ creating specific gendered meanings in texts. Feminist stylisticians
study general theoretical approaches to language and gender studies and specifically
linguistic feminism as expressed in Discourse from a feminist standpoint.

Burton (1982) believes that ‘stylistic analysis is not just a question of discussing “effects” in
language and text, but a powerful method for understanding the ways in which all sorts of
“realities” are constructed through language’(1982: 201). Burton performs her investigation
based on a feminist framework and on the analysis of clinical depression as described in The
Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath22.(1963). Feminist stylisticians highlight in a systematic manner the
selfconscious attempts by female writers to modify traditional modes of language use. 23 This
is achieved investigating broad range of issues and skills in textual analysis with the feminist
ethos as its underpinning ideology which is described by Mills as „a form of politically
motivated stylistics whose aim is to develop an awareness of the way gender is handled in
texts‟ and the ways that point of view, agency, metaphor or transitivity are unexpectedly
related to matters of gende‟ (Mills, 1995: 1-2). As in the previous case, figurative and
expressive means of language which encourage the subordination, dehumanization and
enslavement of women in society are used in here. The goal of this approach to stylistic study
is the evolution of linguistic and social change. (Blainem 1990:3).

At the early stage of development stylisticians explored and forgrounded the similarities
between texts produced by both men and women. However, nowadays, works in this
direction appear to emphasize that there is a „women‟s writing‟, which is fundamentally
different in style from „men‟s writing‟. According to Mills (1995: 44): „Virginia Woolf
asserted that there was a sentence which women writers had developed which she termed
21
decoding
22
The Bell Jar, novel by Sylvia Plath, first published in January 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas and later
released posthumously under her real name. The work, a thinly veiled autobiography, chronicles a young woman’s
mental breakdown and eventual recovery, while also exploring societal expectations of women in the 1950s. Plath
committed suicide one month after the publication of The Bell Jar, her only novel. ( Britannica)
https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Bell-Jar
23
Bassey Garvey Ufot :Feminist Stylistics: A Lexico-grammatical Study of the Female Sentence in Austen‟s Pride
and Prejudice and Hume-Sotomi‟s The General’s Wife Bassey Garvey, in ACADEMY PUBLISHER
Manufactured in Finland. doi:10.4304/tpls.2.12.2460-24702012.

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the „female sentence‟ or the sentence of the feminine gender.‟ This debats started by
Virginia Woolf who argued “that there is a difference between men‟s and women‟s
writing…. Modern feminist stylisticians thus insist that men and women differ even in their
ways of thinking and perceiving reality. (Mills 1995).

The linguistic differences in the way men and women perceive social reality is now
technically referred to as „genderlect‟. According to Wales (1997: 202), speech differences
have always been part of sexual stereotyping, whatever the basis in reality: in many
societies…the supposed garrulity of women is reflected in proverbs, jokes as well as the
novel.… It is difficult to get quantitative evidence, as it is to get firm confirmation that, for
example, women use more tag questions, and favour intensifiers like so and such and the use
of hyperbole. “

Another crucial concept associated with this debate is gynocriticism. This is defined as a
stylistic studies of works by women writers by women stylisticians. Both parties are believed
to be greatly influenced by the critical interventions of Woolf. Gynocriticism attempts to
rediscover women writers who have faded into oblivion as well as evaluate general matters
such as the sociopolitical issues which affect women writers ‟ educational and job careers
especially as these are examplified by language. Feminist stylisticians posit that female
writing is substantially different in terms of its formal linguistic constituents as well as
thematic concerns. Woolf refers to this as the „female sentence‟ and Mills describes it as the
„gendered sentence‟. (Bassey Garvey Ufot 2012).

Specific studies are dedicated to the issues of a woman’s speech. For instance, it has been now
argued that there are differences in male and female sentences.

Male sentences prefer subordination, use subordinate clauses, are based on the elements of
control and choice, are clear and rational, assertive and authoritative. On the other hand,
female writers use coordinative sentences. As well as this, it is believed that female
sentences aim for admiration and approval, lack authority and rationality and are more
apologetic and emotive than the sentences produced by their male counterparts. As well as
this, it is claimed that a male writer’s work has the effect of hierchising, suppressing and
ordering whereas women-writers pursue non-linear, anti-hierchical and discentered style
in writing ( Coupland 2007). This line was followed by an interesting investigation by Bassey
Garvey Ufot, who studied male versus female speech in Jane Austin’s and Hume-Sotomi’s (a
Nigerian author) works. The researcher came to the conclusion that both female authors

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prefer the stylistic juxtaposition of antithetical clauses, parataxis (parallel co-ordinated
clauses)/antithesis (juxtaposition). Both authors use exclamation marks frequently, employ
short, sharp, pointed and feminine sentences. Their rhythmic patterns are enhanced by the
hyperbolic tropes which enable them to „rebel‟ against male dominance typically
represented by subordination and hierarchization. (Bassey Garvey Ufot 2012). Besides, this
research revealed the use of lexical items which are often implicated in the subjugation of
the female voice in literary language.
This is contradicted by Mills, who concludes that the female sentence is grammatically much
more complex than the male sentence which is linked with only by hypotaxis, 24 that is by
the fact that the clauses are placed side by side; but it is classified as female,because it is
concerned with emotion and dominance ( Mills, 1995: 54)

Currently feminist stylistics is developing together with narratology. Although these

bracnhes of linguistics are often understood to have distinct aims, there are nonetheless
plenty of linguistic, stylistic devices which both narratologists and stylisticians employ to
describe and explain the process of gendered meaning creation in texts.
Recently feminist stylistic is concerned with the analysis of gender in multimodal, non-
exclusively verbal discourses as well as in some genres which could be considered outside the
prototypically female spectrum, such as children’s fiction (Montoro 2014). Sunderland (2011)
investigates the way female and male characters and gender relations , are represented in the
language of the fiction chidren read (2011:1).

Feminist stylisticians have also started to point out that gender matters should be
investigated in nonverbal contexts as well. For example, Koller (2008) studies the menaing of
the colour pink as a marker of gender and sexuality. Using both social semiotics and
cognitive semantic principles and tools, Koller argues that the use of the colour pink has
evolved in a way that has recently become linked to certain values that stand close to post-
feminist formulations. As she explains: There seems to be a tendency to reclaim pink and
redefine it as the colour of women who regard themselves as having achieved equality in
social and economic terms and are therefore able to embrace pink as a marker of their
femininity. While such post-feminist thinking rests on false premises – even a cursory glance
[…] shows that women have not yet achieved socio-economic equality – it nevertheless
constructs a new brand of femininity; the ‘fun fearless female’ […]. And she comes clad in

24
Hypotaxis is subordination of one clause to another, or when the clauses are coordinated or
subordinated to one another within sentences. She was awarded first prize in the poetry competition
after she had fascinated the audience with her beautiful poems.

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pink. In this framework, pink is used to communicate fun and independence, financial and
professional power without conforming to masculine norms, as well as femininity and self-
confidence. (Koller 2008 as cited in Montoro, 2014). Recent research (Montoro) also includes
semiotic resources, typography and colour which are used to highlight the way that values
associated with a very specific group of females (white, middle-class, in their thirties, and
prototypically urbanite) are recurrently realised on the book (and back) covers of these
novels, suggesting that feminist stylistics should pay urgent heed to the way multimodal
concerns can also help the feminist cause.

Stylistics and Literary pragmatics (Pragmastylistics)

Broadly defined, Pragmatics investigates relationships between language, its users, and its
contexts of use. Historically, it was born in the domain of the semiotic theories of Charles
Morris (1938) who described signs as governed by three types of relations : the syntactic, the
semantic, and the pragmatic. Later scholars interested in Pragmatics (J. Austin, P. Grice and
J. Searle) developed the basic principles of pragmatic analysis by showing that while using
languages, users communicate their messages through their words and implicate 25 and
perform particular acts and intentions.
Literary pragmatics and pragmatic stylistics have emerged out of these ideas and investigate
these similar issues with regard to literary texts. The scope of Pragmatic stylistics (Huang
(2012: 19) is defined as "the application 26 of the findings and methodologies of the
theoretical pragmatics to the study of the concept of style in language". As it has been
discussed earlier in this course of lectures, Stylistics studies the style which is the
effectiveness of a mode of expression as well as the speaker’s emotional or factual
attitude towards the message passed on his hearer and to the context or situation. As well
as this, it was mentioned that style involves deviation from the norm language to
achieve rhetorical and persuasive effects. Stylistics is not a homogenous discipline and is
divided into 'literary' and lingustic stylistics. Leech (1969: 1-2) defined literary stylistics as
"the study of the use of language in literature"; he has regarded stylistics as "the meeting
ground of linguistic and literature". There are various branches of stylistics, the most
prominent of which are linguistic stylistics (which studies the devices in language and their
their structural patterns), literary stylistics (which is concerned with the author,
movement and social setting of the literary work), and pragmatic stylistics ( which

25
To suggest, to believe
26
Use, administration, employment

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explores the application of the findings and methodologies of theoretical pragmatics to the
study of the concept of style in language).

Hickey (1993: 578) points out that stylistics and pragmatics coincide in that both are directly
interested in the choices speakers /writers make from a range of acceptable linguistic
forms. However, the difference between these disciplines lies in the fact that pragmatics
looks at the choice as the means, the instrument chosen by the author/speaker to perform
actions (request, inform, persuasion, etc.), whereas stylistics studies the choices made on
the linguistic level and the effects produced on the reader/ hearer (aesthetic, affective,
etc.) https://www.persee.fr/doc/rbph_0035-0818_1993_num_71_3_3890

From this point of view, style is a contextually determined language variation, while
pragmatics is an area of study and is concerned with the relationships between language
and context. The problematic area is the understanding of the context which is perceived
differently in each case. For stylistics, context is usually the situation that determines
a certain way of speaking, whereas pragmatics sees a context as a more complex
phenomenon, composed of the knowledge, beliefs, assumptions and situation. Therefore,
Pragmastylistics provides a theoretical framework to explain the relations between
linguistic forms and pragmatic interpretations , and how the style of communication
varies as the speaker aids the hearer to identify the thought behind an utterance.(Al-
Hindawi & Al-Aadili, 2018).

Since Stylistics emerged out of linguistics, it is only natural that it has traditionally
concerned itself with the analysis of language data. However, it is also the case that stylistics
has been used predominantly in the analysis of literary texts. Consequently, as literary texts
have themselves developed, so too has it become necessary for stylistics to develop new ways
of accounting for the effects that such texts can generate, One issue that stylisticians have
recently started to grapple with is multimodality. Since a number of different text-types
include mutimodal elements, a complete analysis of such texts would need to take this into
account. Our coverage here of multimodality cannot be comprehensvie, so we will instead
aim to describe some of the current approaches to the issue that have been applied within
stylistics in order to give a sample of work ongoing in this area. We will begin by considering
drama which has been analysed above (see Lecture 10), since that is a text-type that is
defined in part by its multimodal elements.

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Prototypically, dramatic texts are written to be performed and a full stylistics analysis of such
texts should be able to account for performance -related effects. That stylisticians of drama
have tended not to consider dramatic performances has to do with a methodological problem
associated with this, namely that since theatre performances vary from show to show, the
object of analysis is unstable and critical discussion is not viable. This, however, is less of an
issue in the stylistic analysis of film drama, since, with the exception of remarks, there is only
ever one record of a film performcance to be taken into account. McINtyre (2008) examines a
film version of Shakespeare's play Richard III and presents an analysis that identifies the
ways in which the performance emphasises the effects generated by the linguistic elements
of the screen play. The means by which it is achieved is via the applicaiton of linguistic
analytic frameworks. For instcance, Brown and Levinson's politeness theory is predicated on
the notion that social distance can be enocded in language and that speaker's linguistic
choices can consequently affect social relations. What McIintyre suggests is that the Brown
and Levinson's politeness model can be used to explain literal movement closer to or further
away from an interlocutor.

Stylisctis and Critical Discourse Analysis ( CDA), Critical Stylistics

As is known, critical discourse analysis (CDA) attempts to disclose the ways societal
structures and processes are encoded in the discourse practices. Discourse is understood as a
socio-semiotic process (M.A.K.Halliday). It is also considered that public discourse reflects
patterns of societal organization (i.e., social hierarchy, power, hegemony), and helps
construct and reinforce them. The methodology of CDA (also called radical stylistics) is
applied in the research concerning institutional discourse, especially, the language of politics
and administration, massmedia and advertising.

In CDA, discourses are classed as linguistic constructs and therefore, CDA concentrates
accordingly on their linguistic properties. The following linguistic means have been given
considerable attention: a) modality and grammatical means for conveying attitude (modal
auxiliaries and modal adverbs, evaluative adjectives, verbs of knowledge, prediction and
evaluation), b) the pragmatic model of meaning, d) the category of gender (disclosing sexist
bias in language, cf. feminist linguistics, Hoffmannová, 1995), e) the speech acts theory, f)
lexical means (metaphors, euphemisms, weasel words, words of abuse and endearment, etc.)
were successfully applied on the study of narrative fiction and news stories (Simpson 1993,
Freeborn et al. 1993, Fowler 1991).

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The emerging Critical Stylistics (CS) provides remedy for the broken thread between
stylistics (understood as textual choices) and CDA (which analyses ideology and power as
expressed in thte language). Critical Stylistics was initiated by the publication of the book
Critical Stylistics: The Power of English (Jeffries, 2010). Critical Stylistics tries to perform
"the main general function that a text has in representing realities"(Jeffries 2010:14).
Therefore, while doing this, Critical Stylistics presents a list of tools which can be used while
analyzing a text from the point of view of CS.

As CS is based on Stylistics, it utilizes "linguistic features that are already well-described in

very many semantic-grammatical theories and how ideologies are "communicated,
reproduced, constructed and negotiated using language"(Jeffries, 2010: 5). The area of texts
covered by CS is also very broad and encompasses the media discourse, legal, business and
political texts as well as literature.

CDA has been criticised is that it contains a lack of a comprehensive, complete methodology
for the analyst to utilize, which can be seen as a drawback of it being a multidisciplinary
field. Critical stylistics, in turn, tries to intoroduce a systemic analytical model which
combines methods from stylistics and critical linguistics, in order to explain the "linguistic
choices of text producers and their possible ideological motifs and implications" (Coffey 2013:
30, as cited in Riyadh Khalil Ibrahim, 2018 https://www.iasj.net/iasj?
func=fulltext&aId=150087). It should be noted that the
introduction of a more systematic framework provides a more systematic analysis.

According to CS, all texts are ideologically influenced and CS presents a set of analytical tools
which enables the analyst to “shine the light” on hidden ideologies in texts in an objective
manner. Ideology can be expressed in many forms, such as it can be understood as collective
consciousness, related to religion, and as manifested by power and domination which
involves the study of ideology as an instrument of domination in society (Riyadh Khalil
Ibrahim, 2018 https://www.iasj.net/iasj?func=fulltext&aId=150087).

Stylistics and Semantics

As we have seen above (Chapters 1-3) style is an elusive concept and has been defined
differently by various schools and directions in Linguistics and beyond. However, whatever
theory we may follow, it is quite obvious that Stylistics is not only one of the branches of
linguistics, but a parallel disciple (Ulmann) which investigates all the levels of a language but

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from its point of view. However, having said this, Stylistics has the closest links with
Lexicology and Semantics. As it is maintained that context plays a decisive role in the
understanding of a word or a phrase, it can be safely assumed that the issues of decoding
raised by the semantic structure of individual words in Semantics which can be analysed
against the apparatus used by Stylistics, can be explored through the following method:
simple semantic situations (when a noun corresponds to only one meaning) and complex
semantic situations (when a noun reveals several potential meanings (readings).

The first (one-to-one) relationship in Stylistics and Semantics maybe investigated through
exploring motivation. As we have already learnt above, phonetic motivation (onomatopoeia)
is quite obvious with Joyce. Although Joyce was slow to develop an interest in the
possibilities of nonlexical onomatopoeia, in “Ivy Day in the Committee Room,” Mr Henchy
puts two bottles of stout on the hob, saying “Did you ever see this little trick?” (Joyce
1993a:101). A few minutes later, one of the corks flies out, and Joyce represents the sound by
“Pok!,” with uppercase P, italics, and exclamation mark all working to magnify the dramatic
effect. (Joyce’s Noises by Derek Attridge, Oral Tradition, 24/2 (2009): 471-484).

Another example taken from Ulysses, emphasizes the strength of the association between the
sounds and the song, which is made obvious when the train whistle penetrates Molly’s
thoughts. She is recalling some of her youthful experiences when her reminiscences are
interrupted by the same sequence of letters/sounds, now with even more e’s (no fewer than
twenty) and an upper case F at the start (perhaps the train is closer?): (Joyce’s Noises by
Derek Attridge, Oral Tradition, 24/2 (2009): 471-484)

“Frseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeefrong that train again weeping tone once in the dear deaead days
beyondre call close my eyes breath my lips forward kiss sad look eyes open piano ere oer the
world the mists began I hate that istsbeg comes loves sweet sooooooooooong (Ulysses 18.874-
77).

Joyce can serve a good example while discussing another type of motivation, actively
discussed both in lexicology and stylistics: morphological motivation. For instance, the word

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Peloothered employed by Joyce in Dubliners, and means very drunk ( in the context), may
have been inspired by its archaic equivalent “ blootered”.

Finally, semantic motivation which is characterised by semantic ambuiguity 27is considered

to be the most advanced and most complex type of motivation and is closely connected with
stylistics, semantics and lexicology. Semantic motivation is found in figurative speech,
metaphors, similes, etc. For instance, words denoting colour as well as water are used
metaphorically by Joyce. For instance, 'Making water' which is employed by Joyce
repeatedly is associated with artistic creativity.

Besides the above-mentioned areas, both Stylistics and Semantics explore collocations,
synonymic and antonymic relations, collocations which enables us to conclude that
Semantics and Stylistics enjoy a close relationship and prove the interdisciplinary nature of
Stylistics (which we discussed above). This is because of the interdisciplinarity of the concept
of style. By the same token, it is crucial to determine the purpose of stylistic analysis while
establishing necessary perspectives of the research.

Practice section

1. Answer the questions

1. What were the prerequisites of Feminist linguistics and feminist stylistics?

2. What does feminist stylistics study?

3. Do you agree with Mills ‘ words at page 37?

4. Why is it necessary to discuss texts from the point of view of feminist stylistics?

5. As you have learnt Virginia Woolf’s works, point out what makes her significant as a
feminist writer?

27
Having more than one meaning, being hazy, ორაზროვნება

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 6. Name feminist writers in Georgia

7. What are the differences between male and femal speakers?

8. What does Pragmatics study?

9. Define the difference between literary pragmatics and pragmatic stylistics/literary

stylitics and pragmatic stylistics

10. How is critical stylistics different from other branches of stylistics?

11. Determine the areas that stylistics and semantics share

12. Why is CDA necessary? What does it study that is not covered by other fields?

2. State whether the following statements are True or False

1 Mills states that the female sentence is grammatically much more complex T F
than that of male.
2 Gynocriticism is a stylistic study of works by men writers by women T F
stylisticians.
3 The area of texts covered by CS is limited to literary texts T F
4 Feminist stylistics describes how gender issues are linguistically encoded in T F
texts
5 Pragmatics investigates relationships between language, its users, and its T F
contexts of use.
6 Literary pragmatics and pragmatic stylistics investigate similar issues with T F
regard to literary texts

3. Read the following poems and decide whether the authors are men or women.
Support your opinions with arguments

1. I have no wit, I have no words, no tears;

My heart within me like a stone

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 Is numbed too much for hopes or fears;
Look right, look left, I dwell alone;
A lift mine eyes, but dimmed with grief
No everlasting hills I see;
My life is like the falling leaf;
Jesus, quicken me.

2. The tree has entered my hands,

The sap has ascended my arms,
The tree has grown in my breast -
Downward,
The branches grow out of me, like arms.
Tree you are,
Moss you are,
You are violets with wind above them.
A child - so high - you are,
And all this is folly to the world.

CHAPTER 11

Intertextuality, ekpharsis and multimodality

Intertextuality

Intertextuality indicates that all texts, whether written or spoken, whether formal or
informal are in some ways related to each other. The word “intertextuality” comes from
Latin into English with its original meaning ‘intertexto’ (which means “intermingle during
the weaving process”). As is known, the term was first used in the field of semiotics by the

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Bulgarian -French philosopher, novelist and literary critic Julia Kristeva in 1966. Kristeva
believed that texts are made up of other texts (and are therefore the products of other texts).
She referred to texts in terms of two axes: a horizontal axis connecting the author and reader
of a text, and a vertical axis, which connects the text to other texts, i.e. each text is
constructed of quotations, allusions, calques, imitation, pastiche, parody, etc. Currently,
different levels and dimensions of intertextuality are explained. It is also shown how
intertextuality is not only an intentional product of artists, writers and media producers, but
also of particular processes of interpretation and reading. (Intertextuality. Available from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313405629_Intertextuality [accessed Mar 09 2020].

The famous French linguist Roland Barthes claimed that any new text is a new “tissue” of
past citations. According to Barthes, intertextuality is the condition of existence of any text.
[Source: http://www.egs.edu/library/roland-barthes/biography/]. While talking about
intertextuatlity, it is important to understand that everything can be a ‘text’. Specifically, the
definition of the word ‘text’ implies written signs or words of any kind; this could thus be
books, newspapers, letters, WhatsApp-messages, magazines, subtitles, slogans on t-shirts and
far more. ( https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313405629_Intertextuality [accessed
Mar 09 2020]. Intertextuality is frequently used in newspaper style and it is often based on
the stylistic device of allusion, e.g. the newspaper headline The Blame in Spain (GW, Feb 22-
28, 2001) was used as reference to the song 'The Rain in Spain' from the musical 'My Fair
Lady ' (at that time there were some problems of communication between Spain and UK).

Scholars in critical cultural studies tend to speak of readers as ‘subjects’, indicating that they
are not autonomous actors but always subjected to social and symbolic relations. This also
involves a reflection on how other dimensions of culture, particularly gender and ethnicity,
play a part in intertextual reading. A black female reader, for instance, may interpret the
emergence of black Bond girl Halle Berry in Diamonds as yet another manifestation of black
femininity with sexuality (Hooks, 1992). In more theoretical terms, cultural critical scholars
argue that readers should be approached as if they are ‘texts’ themselves influenced by the
discourses of class, gender, ethnicity and more, and are as much in need of interpretation (by
the researcher) as the texts they read. Therefore, text and reader are both seen as discursive
constructs and also seen as a result of the meeting of the discourses of the text with the
discourses of the reader’ (Deming, 1986, p. 33).

(from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313405629_Intertextuality [accessed Mar 09

2020].

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As well as this, any literary text which adopted for film can be considered as intertextuality.
For instance, Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Elia Kazan's
adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire; Vakhtang Tabliashvili’s
version of Gamsakhurdia’s The hand of a Great Master, etc.

Levels of Intertextuality

There are several levels of intertextuality. For instance, the text may refer to prior texts as a
source of meanings. As well as this, less explicitly, the text may rely on beliefs, issues, ideas,
statements generally circulated and likely familiar to the readers. In this case, readers could
refer to a specific source or would just understand as common cultural knowledge. By using
certain recognizable kinds of language, phrasing, and genres where such language forms are
used, usually to identify that text as part of those worlds.

Techniques of Intertextual Representation. The following types of intertextuality can be

recognized: 1.Direct quotation is usually identified by quotation marks, block
indentation, italics, or other typographic markers in the text. 2. Indirect quotation usually
filters the meaning through the second author’s words allows the meanings to be more
thoroughly mingled with the second writer’spurpose. 3. Mentioning of a person, document,
or statements relies on the reader’s familiarity with the original source and what it says. In
this case, as no quotation of the first author or other details are specified, the second author
has even greater opportunity to imply what he or she wants or rely on general beliefs about
the original without directly quoting the source. Another type of quoting intertextuality
details can be comments or evaluations on a statement or a text using recognizable phrasing,
terminology associated with specific people or groups of people or particular documents.
(www.researchgate.net/publication/315112479_Intertextuality_How_Texts_Rely_on_Other_
Texts_1 [accessed Mar 11 2020].

Another manifestation of intertexutality is translation across contexts which is considered to

be a case of recontextualization. Each time someone else’s words, or words from one
document or another part of the same document, are used in a new context, the earlier words
are recontextualized, and thereby given new meaning in the new context. Finally,
every text, all the time, relies on the available language of the period,and is part of the
cultural world of the times.

Examples of intertextuality:

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Below there are several examples of intertextuality, taken from literary works as well as from
cinema and other semiotic systems.

Hemingway employed the sentence from “No man is an island (MEDITATION

XVII,Devotions upon Emergent Occasions by Jon Donne) as a title of his novel “For whom
the bell tolls” (“No man is an island … and therefore never send to know for whom the bell
tolls; it tolls for thee).”

Although some scholars suppose that William Golding in his novel Lord of the Flies (1954)
takes the story of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, it is assumed that Golding was
influenced by R.M Ballantyne’s The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean (1857).
According to John Carey, the author of a Biography of Golding, being inspired by The Coral
Island Golding wrote the ‘real’ story of what would happen if boys were stranded on an
island – in Lord of the Flies he had written Coral Island in reverse. This genre of fiction,
called Robinsonade, in its turn was inspired by Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe.

In Ulysses by Joyce, the correspondences between Leopold Bloom and Odysseus, Molly
Bloom and Penelope, and Stephen Dedalus and Telemachus can be considered good examples
of intertextuality.

The extract taken from “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck refers to the the allusion based on
the story of Biblical story of Cain and Abel. Steinbeck makes both references to the story
directly as well as through his contemporary characters of Cal and Aron.

“ Even God can have a preference, can he? Let’s suppose God liked lamb better than
vegetables. I think I do myself. Cain brought him a bunch of carrots maybe. And God
said, ‘I don’t like this. Try again. Bring me something I like and I’ll set you up alongside
your brother.’ But Cain got mad. His feelings were hurt. And when a man’s feelings are
hurt he wants to strike at something, and Abel was in the way of his anger.”

It is a common knowledge that most of Shakespeare’s plays such as Romeo and Juliete,
Hamlet, Othello, Merchant of Venice among others have been reproduced as films. Today,
we can speak of film as one medium among others which interacts as multimedia, or is
connected to one another intermedially as the same film can be seen on cinema, on TV, on
video, and DVD. Another example of intertextuality in this respect may be West Side Story

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(by Arthur Laurents) which was inspired to by William Shakespeare's tragic play Romeo and
Juliet. There are obvious similarities between Romeo and Juliet and Maria and Tony.

Ekphrasis

Scholars interested in ekphrasis maintain different views regarding its essence, scopes, and
typology. For instance, the best known definition states that ekphrasis is a “verbal
representation of a visual representation” (Heffernen, 1993). However, ekphrasis can take a
variety of configurations, and consequently, besides literature, there can be ekphrasis
implying not only to paintings, film, music, and architecture, but also to “uncanonical 28 art
forms such as television, photography, comics, and cinematography” (Persin, 1997).

Ekphrasis was defined by Tom Mitchel, Grant Scott and James Hefferman as ”the verbal
representation of visual representation” while David Carrier sees it as a “verbal re-creations
of visual artwork”(Wagner 1996:10). Rusieshvili-Cartledge and Dolidze (2014) present a
more complete definition of ekphrasis as “Ekphrasis is the verbalization, quotation,
dramatization of or allusion to real or fictitious texts composed in another sign system” (The
International Journal of Literary Humanities, www.thehumanities.com, ISSN 2327-7912).

Ekphrastic inserts (both literary and filmic) involve three parties: the artist, the writer/poet,
and the reader/viewer, close cooperation of which will lead to an adequate decoding of the
ekphrastic text. In order to build a more complete picture of the process of encoding,
perceiving, and decoding an ekphrastic insert, the model according to which the semantic
structure of the ekphrastic insert consists of two interdependent layers: a surface plane
(on which the literary/filmic ekphrastic insert is formally presented) and its background
cultural knowledge plane (on which specific contextual associations, connected with the
object of art are actualized) (Rusieshvili-Cartledge &Dolidze, 2014). Clearly, the wider the
background cultural knowledge of the context, the fuller the scope of its perception. Based
on this model, the authors propose three types of literary and filmic ekphrastic inserts:
ekphrastic description, ekphrastic allusion, and ekphrastic simile.

In the case of ekphrastic description the signified object created in one semiotic plane is
explicitly described in another semiotic plane. Due to this, from the point of view of
decoding, ekphrastic description is the easiest one, though the fullness of this process still

28
Not belonging to a literary or other canon.

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relies on the background cultural knowledge plane. The following example provides an
ekphrastic description:

In the novel Girl With a Pearl Earring by T. Chevalier, one of the portraits by Vermeer, A
Young Woman With a Pitcher unfolds in front of our eyes in a dialogue between Griet and
her blind father. This description, which contemplates the pose of the girl, her clothes and
colours employed as well as the techniques Vermeer uses while painting, can be
characterized as straightforward, explicit and meticulously detailed:“The baker’s daughter
stands in a bright corner by a window,” I began patiently. “She is facing us, but is looking out
the window, down to her right. She is wearing a yellow and black fitted bodice of silk and
velvet, a dark blue skirt, and a white cap that hangs down in two points below her chin....
She has one hand on a pewter pitcher sitting on a table and one on a window she’s partly
opened. She’s about to pick up the pitcher and dump the water from it out the window, but
she’s stopped in the middle of what she’s doing and is either dreaming or looking at
something in the street.”

Another type of ekhprasis, ekphrastic simile directly compares the tenor to the vehicle, both
of these parts are presented on the surface plane of the figure. Obviously, the degree of
decoding will still depend on the background cultural knowledge plane. On the other hand,
ekphrastic allusion involves the cases in which the vehicle is represented on the surface
plane whereas the tenor is hidden and, as well as in the case of ekphrastic simile, it is fully
unveiled according to the width and depth of the background cultural knowledge of the
reader (in the case of literary ekphrasis) or the viewer (in the case of filmic ekphrasis). As can
be seen, although the background cultural knowledge plane is significant in the case of
ekphrastic description, it becomes especially important with ekphrastic simile and ekphrastic
allusion as they, being ekphrastic rhetorical figures, are directly connected with background
cultural associations and cues. For instance, in the Georgian novel Ekaterine Chavchavadze
by Chilaia, Russian poet Griboedov compares the beauty of his future wife, Princess Nino
Chavchavadze to Murillo’s Madonna: “If you want to see my Nino, she is standing over
there, like the Madonna by Murillo.” This can be considered to be an example of ekphrastic
simile.

The third type of ekphrasis, ekphrastic allusion is characterized by the structure similar to
literary ekphrastic allusion. For instance, in the following example only one of the planes of
the figure (the vehicle) is represented on the surface whereas the other one (the tenor) is
hidden which makes their successful intersemiotic transposition difficult to decode and the

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fullness of inference depends entirely on the readiness of the reader: one of the heroes of the
film Once Upon a Time in America , Noodles, reads Martin Eden and the cover of the book
remains on the screen for a considerable time. The associative connection between this
ekphrastic insert and Noodle’s life is quite clear: Martin Eden is a self- educated, intelligent
man who, defeated in his fight with the class recognition, finishes his life thoroughly
disappointed and disillusioned—that may be decoded based on the background
knowledge level. The events unfolded in the film confirm the allusion: disillusioned and
unhappy Noodles in the end escapes from the reality though not to the South Seas, but to the
heroin den. Interestingly, in the novel by Grey The Hoods on which the script of the film
was based, Noodles reads Robin Hood and as well as this, the novel reveals several
metaphoric allusions to this hero. In the film, Robin Hood was replaced by Martin Eden, as
the director and other filmmakers must have considered that replacement of the British hero
by the American cultural icon of the period would make it easier for the American audience
to decode the meaning of this ekphrastic insert.

Other Examples of ekphrasis

1. The best-known examples of ekphrasis is the description of the shield of Achille in The
Iliad. Homer describes the shield made by the god Hephaestus to include the Earth, the
Heavens and the Sea, as well as scenes of human endeavour and lifestyles. The shield
depicted two cities, one besieged by enemies, scenes of planting and harvest and tableaux of
dancing maidens and youths.

2. The starry night by Anne Saxston

Poet Anne Sexton (1928–1974) and artist Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) both battled private
demons. Anne Sexton's poem about van Gogh's "The Starry Night" presents an ominous
scene: The night is a "rushing beast" and a "great dragon" that "boils with eleven stars."
Identifying with the artist, Sexton expresses a death wish and a desire to merge with the sky:

The town does not exist

except where one black-haired tree slips
up like a drowned woman into the hot sky.
The town is silent. The night boils with eleven stars.
Oh starry starry night! This is how
I want to die.

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It moves. They are all alive.
Even the moon bulges in its orange irons
to push children, like a god, from its eye.
The old unseen serpent swallows up the stars.
Oh starry starry night! This is how
I want to die:
into that rushing beast of the night,
sucked up by that great dragon, to split
from my life with no flag,
no belly,
no cry.

Iconotext

Another type of intertextuality is called iconotext. It is the use of (by way of reference or
allusion, in an explicit or implicit way) an image in a text or vice versa, or in other words,
iconotext is a form of document consisting of text and images that complement each other.
Examples of an iconotext can be found in most newspapers, where articles sometimes carry
pictures. It is important to learn how iconotext can be decoded by the reader who has to deal
with two modalities (verbal and non-verbal). Nikolajeva & Scott, 2000:225-226) provide the
interrelationship between verbal text and illustrations in several categores. Namely,
according to the authors, an enhancing interaction appears when one of the modalities
amplify the other by adding some reinforcing information (Nikolajeva & Scott, 2000, p. 225).
To give some examples, the illustration can for instance amplify the verbal text “she is very
sad”, by portraying a girl crying with a dark, rainy cloud placed over her head. If the
illustration shows a boy smiling happily, the verbal text can amplify the illustration by
explaining why the boy is so happy. (https://hvlopen.brage.unit.no/hvlopen-
xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2608500/Severinsen.pdf?sequence=1);

Multimodal metaphors

Multimodal metaphor is a metaphor that is based on more than two or more modes/
modalities to activate mapping between the tenor and the vehicle [Richards 1938], or target
domain and source domain [Lakoff, Johnson 1980]. As is known, cognitive linguistics does
not consider metaphor only a linguistic phenomenon, a trope, but metaphor is frequently
believed to represent a human cultural model of perceiving and construing reality. CMT

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argued that people’s conceptual system at its core is metaphorical. Gibbs [Gibbs & Steen,
1999] added that reasoning and conceptualization are embodied, i.e. all human thinking
processes stem from sensori-motor interactions with the world. Abstract phenomena, such as
love, life, or argument are cognitively represented through perceivable objects, human body
being the point of reference. The concept of GOOD in English is thus perceived through the
orientational point UP: I’m feeling up; My spirits rose; You’re in high spirits [Lakoff &
Johnson 1980].

However, metaphor is not only a verbal phenomenon, but it can manifest itself and construe
meaning through various signaling systems, or modes. Out of these modes, the most
recognizable are spoken and written language, visuals, music, sounds, gestures, smell, taste,
and touch. Forceville [2009] claims that metaphor can be not only verbal, but produced by
other modes as well. Interestingly, in this theory, other modes follow the same pattern of
meaning construal. However, non-verbal modes, have to construe meaning via other means
of expression. From this point of view, there are monomodal non-verbal (pictorial) or
multimodal metaphors (involving more than one mode). Rusieshvili and Dolidze (2011,
2012, 2013, 2015 ) explore the capacity of multimodal metaphors, the ways monomodal
verbal metaphor can be transposed into monomodal visual or multimodal visual and verbal
metaphor. For instance, one of the examples discussed while analyzing pictorial (visual)
metaphors from the film “Godfather” is the window bars of the Corleone house which
depict the spider in the web. The implication of this visual monomodal metaphor in
the film is the following: the spider uses its web to catch and later devour its
victims. In this particular context the spider’s web represents the Mafia which attracts its
members and in the end treats them like a spider. The spider’s web bars appear several
times in the film. However, the episode where the camera shows the abandoned Corleone
mall, the spider’s web iron bars acquire a new dimension. With reference to the macro-
context of the plot it symbolizes the following: Michael’s last attempt to hold the family
together failed. The dark, bleak and uninviting villa has iron bars on the doors which
represent a spider’s web with a spider in it. This invites metaphoric allusion to Michael’s life
and along with the colours employed in the film build up sinister feeling that something
horrible is going to happen later. In addition to this, Michael’s life is the victim to the
spider (Mafia). Michael’s destiny predetermined by the spider’s web, this metaphor stands
for Mafia and its victim Michael.

(4) (PDF) Monomodal verbal and visual metaphors in fiction and films (using the example of
the literary text, script and film versions of 'The Godfather'). Available from:

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https://www.researchgate.net/publication/293427262_Monomodal_verbal_and_visual_metap
hors_in_fiction_and_films_using_the_example_of_the_literary_text_script_and_film_version
s_of_'The_Godfather' [accessed Mar 12 2020].

It can be concluded that current stylistics is a multidisciplinary domain which can be

approached from a number of angles.

Practice session

1. Answer the following questions:

1. Why are all texts related to each other? Provide arguments

2 What are the factors that define the reaction of a reader as a “subject” to
intertextuality?
3 Why are texts and readers considered as “discursive constructs”?
4 Comment on various techniques of intertextual representation and provide
examples from the literary works.
5 What techniques are used in the following cases of intertextuality?

1. “Even God can have a preference, can he? Let’s suppose God liked lamb better than
vegetables. I think I do myself. Cain brought him a bunch of carrots maybe. And God
said, ‘I don’t like this. Try again. Bring me something I like and I’ll set you up alongside
your brother.’ But Cain got mad. His feelings were hurt. And when a man’s feelings are
hurt he wants to strike at something, and Abel was in the way of his anger.” (John
Steinback).

2. CLAUDIUS: Welcome, dear Rosencrantz… (he raises a hand at GUIL while

ROS bows – GUIL bows late and hurriedly.)… and Guildenstern.

(He raises a hand at ROS while GUIL bows to him – ROS is still straightening up from his
previous bow and half way up he bows down again. With his head down, he twists to
look at GUIL, who is on the way up.)

Moreover that we did much long to see you,

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 The need we have to use you did provoke

Our hasty sanding.

(ROS and GUIL still adjusting their clothing for CLAUDIUS’s presence.) (Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard)

3. ახალი ქრისტეს ოთხი დავრჩით მახარობელი,

პაოლო, გრიგოლ, ვალერიან,

მე _ იოანე” (ტიციან ტაბიძე, “დროსა ქიმერიელთა”).

1.What are the most significant features of ekphrasis?

2.Comment on the types of ekphrasis. Provide examples.

3. What kind of ekphrasis are the following examples?

1. Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" by Bruegel the Elder; poem by William Carlos Williams
Williams: "it was spring // a farmer was ploughing / his field / the whole pageantry // of the
year was / awake tingling / near // the edge of the sea / concerned / with itself // sweating in
the sun".

2. John Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn"

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What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?/What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?/What
pipes and timbrels?/ What wild extacy?

Describe the types of multimodal metaphors. How do they differ from monomodal metaphors?

5. Comment on the following pictorial metaphor:

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CHAPTER 12

174
Levels of language at work: an example from poetry and drama

This unit illustrates some basic principles of foregrounding in the context of literary
discourse. On the other hand, it explores how different levels of language can be pressed into
service in stylistically significant ways.

Before embarking on the analysis of the text, we would like to revise the terms that are
crucial to the stylistic analysis and that have been explained above in the course. Leech
(1969:37) discusses different types of linguistic deviations distinguishing the three main
levels of language: realization, form, and semantics. Realization can be observed in the levels
of phonology and graphology; form is connected with grammar and lexical system and
finally, semantics is stylstic changes in denotative or cognitive meaning.

Lexical Deviation is created through employing words in a way that differs from their
ordinary usage, i.e. by employing lexical deviation writer/poet confers words a deeper value
to express meaning and to show some aesthetic and emotive load in the poem.

Semantic Deviation shows that an ordinary word can have an unexpected meaning. It is
claimed that sometimes the poet’s/ writer’s/speaker’s private life and his culture can give
certain colouring to the word.

Phonological Deviation is related to the sounds arranged in a certain way on purpose to

create musical and stylistic effects. The phonological deviation is usually associated with the
social class and uneducated speech. It should also be mentioned that educated English people
show a wide range of permissible variation in pronunciation and usage. Intrestingly,
sometimes deviation from the normal use of sounds or mispronunciation of sounds may be
the result of habit, e.g. childish mispronunciation caused by the age or a physical defect
(Jones, 1918: 12). It is also worth mentioning, that like the language levels, types of deviation
are aslo connected and therefore, grammatical deviation from the standard English is
frequently associated with phonetic and phonological differences.

1. “Frob the cuttry, but subthing in your way, or I’b bisketed”. ( Dickens) ( frob-from;
subthing-something; I’b- bisketed- I am mistaken)

2. “I’b dot certaid you cad”, said Barney, who was the attendant sprite, “but I’ll idquire” (
dot-not; certaid-certain; cad-can).

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Morphological Deviation describes unusual ways of forming words which carry stylistic
implications. The lowest unit of syntactic organization is the word. Phrases consist of words.
As we remember from the course of Lexicology, words are built by morphemes. For instance,
blackboard consists of two morphemes: “White” and “board” which can also stand freely in
the system of language as words. However, besides this, morphemes can be bound, as well.
For instance, the word “careful” has two units of meaning care and ful (marker of presence of
some quality).

One way of word producing deviation at a morphological level is by adding an ending to a

word not normally be added to; for instance, Perhapless mystery of paradise (Cummings). In
this phrase, Cummings adds “less” to a word “perhaps” making up an intereting case of
morphological deviation, pointing out that mystery in this case is devoid uncertainty. (Short,
1996:51).

“Bet will go, won’t you, my dear? ‘Wheres?”, inquired the young lady ( Dickens).

“I remember him, of course. There wasn’t a obstinater young rascal ( Dickens)

Syntactical Deviation describes how writers neglect the rules related to sentence structure
and tenses in order to achieve some stylistic effect.

“My dear, said Mr. Brumble, “I did not know you were here”

“Didn’t know you were here!”, repeated Mr. Brumble, “What do you do here?”.

Employment of lexical units from dialects. Dialect words are borrowed by writers to fully
express their emotions and create stylistic effects.

,,ჰაიტ!-შე ფარცაგო და მაკვარანცხო,/ ჰაიტ!-შე ჭინკას ჭლიკო, გოგიტა!“(გორგილაძე);

ყველას ახლად შობა უნდ,/მე რად ძველისკ მაბრუნებ,/სულო–დ ბედისწერაო?/ყველა

ახალ ბუდეს ღობს,/მე რად უფრო მენატრებ,/დანახავსარ კერაო? ( ეთერ თათარაიძე).

Mixing of breach of Registers- "register mixing" (Leech, 1969:42-52) may help writers to
express their thoughts more precisely in certain cases.

Historical Deviation - poets tend to use archaic and obsolete words to enhance the
aesthetical value of the poem.

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Graphological Deviation- is expressed through the neglect of the rules related to
punctuation, e.g. writing without using capital letters, or without using spaces or
rhymes. (Leech 1969: 52).(modified from A Stylistic Analysis of Two Selected Poems.
Available from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311873842_A_Stylistic_Analysis_of_Two_Selected
_Poems [accessed Mar 13 2020].

Below there is a sample analysis of ‘Love is more thicker than forget’ the untitled poem,
which was published in 1939 by the American poet E.E.Cummings: (modified from
https://loveismorethickerthanforget.weebly.com/the-analysis.html)

love is more thicker than forget

more thinner than recall more
seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fail
it is most mad and moonly and
less it shall unbe than all the sea
which only is deeper than the sea
love is less always than to win
less never than alive
less bigger than the least begin
less littler than forgive
it is most sane and sunly
and more it cannot die
than all the sky which only is higher
than the sky (Cummings 1954 [1939]: 381)

This text is a love poem and reveals the absence of a formal title. Due to this, it is referred to
as ‘love is more thicker’. This poem bears a number of stylistic devices of the author, who is
noted for the deviations from spelling and orthography rules applied in English. As well as
this, the poem contains a number of invented words (‘sunly’ and ‘moonly’) and, neologisms,
as well as the verb ‘unbe’ which suggests a kind of reversal from ‘being’ to ‘not being’. It is
claimed that the poem treats existing “real” words in the English lexicon in an original and
colourful way. On the other hand, Cummings is quite devoted to the almost mathematical
symmetry of the stanzaic organisation, where key words and phrasal patterns are repeated

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across the four verses. Despite the fact that many of the rules of Grammar are violated, all of
the poem’s constituent clauses are connected grammatically.

In order to interpret the poem, it is necessaryto identify which aspects of language the poet is
manipulating with. Adjectives, for a start, have already been highlighted as one of the main
sites for stylistic experimentation in the poem. Adjectives ascribe qualities to objects and
concepts, familiar examples of which are words like large, bright, good, bad, difficult and
regular. A notable grammatical feature of adjectives, and one which the author exploits with
particular stylistic force, is their potential for gradability. Many English adjectives can be
graded by extending or modifying the degree or intensity of the basic quality which they
express. A useful test for checking whether or not an adjective is gradable is to see if the
intensifying word ‘very’ can go in front of it. For instance, ‘ a very bright light’, ‘the very
good decision’, and so on. However, this test does not work for another group of adjectives,
known as classifying adjectives, which specify more fixed qualities relative to the noun they
describe. In the following examples, insertion of ‘ very’ in front of the classifying adjectives
‘former’ and ‘strategic’ seems unusual: ‘the very former manager’. A comparative form of the
regular adjective large can be formed by adding the inflectional morpheme er to form
‘larger’, while a superlative form adds est to form ‘largest’. If the adjective contains more than
one syllable, then the comparative and superlative forms normally require the introduction
of a separate word, as in ‘ more regular’ or ‘most difficult’. Finally, adjectives may be graded
to signal equal relationships (‘as bright as . . .’, ‘as difficult as . . .’) as well negative, as opposed
to positive, relations (‘less/least large’, ‘less/least regular’).

Cummings manipulates the features of grammar and vocabulary pinpointed above. To some
extent, ‘love is more thicker’ is an object lesson in how not to form adjective phrases in
English. Much of what the poet does is arguably either grammatically redundant and
unacceptable or semantically anomalous. For a start, Cummings constantly violates the
grammatical rules of the formation of comparative and superlative degrees. In spite of their
one-syllable status, adjectives like ‘ thick’ and ‘thin’ receive both the inflectional morpheme
and the separate intensifier (‘more thicker’). However, they become the objects for
foregrounding. For a start, superlative forms of other one-syllable adjectives like ‘mad’ and
‘sane’ do not receive the inflectional morpheme (as in ‘maddest’ or ‘sanest’) but are instead
presented more unusually, by the following separate words: ‘most mad’ and ‘most sane’. In
addition, a further variation on the pattern emerges where markers of both positive and
inferior relations are used together in the same adjective phrase. For example, ‘big’ is
converted to ‘less bigger’ and, even more oddly, ‘little’ to ‘less littler’. As a whole, the texture

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of the frame is characetrised by disobeying all the standard rules of Enlgish grammar. In the
proverb ‘Blood is thicker than water’ the comparative adjective ‘thicker’ connects up the
entity ‘blood’ with the key item in the scope element, ‘water’. In order to be successful, the
words compared (water,blood) need to be compatible: for instance, both blood and water are
liquids. A comparison of ‘love’ might therefore reasonably anticipate another noun element
which derives from the broad compass of human emotion, yet nothing of the sort is offered
by Cummings. Here the adjective phrase works to develop a comparison of the noun ‘love’.
Positions of grammatical categories are also interesting. Another eye-catching pattern
emerges in the second and third lines of the first stanza and is sustained for the remainder of
the poem. Cummings inserts adverbs of frequency, like ‘seldom’, ‘always’ or ‘never’, into the
main slot in the adjective phrase frame. As is known, adverbs have a markedly different
grammatical function from adjectives. The adverbs employed in this poem provide
circumstantial information about the duration and time-frame in which a verbal process did
or did not take place. Furthermore, many of these adverbs communicate negative time
relationships, and when piled up on one another, words like this can make a text very hard
to decode conceptually. For example, if someone were to remark of the book you are
currently reading that ‘This is a book you must not fail to miss’, you might initially interpret
this as a solid endorsement and praize of the work in question. “However, closer scrutiny
will reveal that the remark means precisely the opposite; that is, that you should endeavour
at all costs to avoid this book. In terms of discourse processing, then, the use of words like
‘fail’, ‘seldom’, ‘forget’ and ‘less’ – words denoting a kind of negative semantic space – creates
a complex interpretative framework which makes the text in certain respects almost
impenetrable as a unit of meaning.” (https://loveismorethickerthanforget.weebly.com/the-
analysis.html). This framework is further problematised by other semantic devices in the
poem. One such technique is tautology which means saying the same thing twice and which
is embodied in everyday phrases like ‘War is war’ or ‘If she goes, she goes’. Many of
Cummings’s comparative and superlative structures are tautologies simply because they
replicate the basic premises of the proposition. See ‘the sea is . . . deeper than the sea’ or ‘the
sky is . . . higher than the sky’. The underlying logical structures of these comparisons fail to
establish new comparison schemes. Other features used to weave the semantic fabric of the
text include lexical antonyms, words of opposite meaning like the adjectives ‘thicker’ and
‘thinner’, the adverbs ‘never’ and ‘always’ and even the adjectival neologisms ‘sunly’ and
‘moonly’. Antonyms establish cohesion in a text, and perhaps rather ironically here, these
opposites help make the poem’s cohesive organisation better when, so to speak, the
grammatical system is in chaos. Through its interplay between the levels of semantics, lexis

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and grammar, then, ‘love is more thicker’ is a poem which is strongly cohesive on the one
hand but which still seems to resist interpretation on the other.

It is not easy to discuss either what a text means or indeed how a text means. However, it is
important to stress that, in spite of the semantic issues, the poem still does communicate. The
individual stylistic tactics used in the poem based on the violation of grammar rules which
makes up the internal dynamic of Cummings’ poem, is sustained by the distortion of these
commonplace routines of speech and writing that deliver the main stylistic impact. In a
sense, there is nothing to be scared of in a text like ‘love is more thicker’ simply because, as
analysis reveals, the grammatical patterns of English upon which it is based are in themselves
straightforward. Love is at once more of something and less of it; not quite as absolute or
certain as ‘always’ but still more than just ‘frequent’. It is deep, deeper even than the sea, and
then a little bit deeper again. Love is formidable.

Stylistic analysis of the language of Drama

Short (1996: 168) defines drama as the literary genre that is similar to an ordinary
daily conversation with certain differences. He also adds that drama "consists of character –
to –character interaction". Further, he explains the discourse structure of drama and
points out that in drama there are two levels of discourse: the author-audience/ reader
level and the character-character level. It is maintained that drama texts contain both
dialogues and monologues and therefore researchers can employ the tools of linguistics
to analyze face to face interactions and the role of the context in the overall meaning
of the conversation. As is known, readers cannot understand the meaning of text unless
they know the context and it is only through the decoding and contextualization of texts
that readers try to reconstruct the author's implied message "his/her communicative act
or discourse"(Verndnok, 2000).

Despite the fact that Drama is a multimedia phenomenon, language has a key position in
drama as it is still the major factor concerening communicaton on the stage.

While characterising the language of the drama it is crucial to bear in mind that dramatic
language is not exactly the language we employ in our everyday life while communicating
with other human beings. On the other hand, unlike the fictional text, the dramatic text
depends on the presence of the interlocutors in the same continuum of space and time.

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One important difference between ordinary and dramatic speech is that the latter is
semantically much more complex because every utterance in drama has got direct
interlocutors (present in the internal communication system) as well as readers who are out
of the internal spatial communicative space. As well as this besides the characters, there is
always a presence of the author.

Another difference between ordinary, colloquial and dramatic speech is that itis much more
complex and, by definition, loaded with an aesthetically functionalised language. While
making the language of their works more impressive and memorable, writers may violate the
norms of everyday language, by the employment of innovative word formations or obsolete
structural features and figurative speech. Therefore, the distance between the dramatic
language and colloquial speech may vary considerably.

While analysing the drama language, one should identify the speaker/the interlocutor and
the present characters and settings. Describe the events unfolding in the play and the
promonent theme of the play. As well as this, pay attention to the function of the scene,
characters, location?

The next step would be the speech and thought representation and the function. Type of
sentences employed, intricacies of punctuation; the moods of the characters and the way
they are employing the language? The voice of the people taking part in the dialogue. How
does this affect the mood of the scene, and does it jar with the content of their speech? Then
we should identify any uses of imagery, and analyse the function of the Stylistic device in
each meaningful case. The next final stage would be the stage directions and multimedia on
the stage.

Now, let us analyse the monologue (soliloquay)29 To be or not to be by Shakespeare.

Let’s start with a read-through of Shakespeare’s original lines:

Hamlet’s ‘To Be Or Not To Be’ Speech, Act 3 Scene 1

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
29
a monologue – is a speech of an actor /character delivered directly to the audience
Monologue is usually a long speech delivered by an actor while other characters are onstage.
Siloloque is a speech delivered by a character/actor for an extended period of time standing alone on stage.

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Take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.–Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember’d.

This monologue/soliloquay is taken from “Hamlet”. While delivering this speech, Hamlet
thinks about life and death, what is better, to be alive or to be dead. ‘To be or not to be’ is
followed by ‘that is the question.’ It seems to him that life put at the mercy of fortune whilst
death is more powerful and defeats life easily. However, life after death is an unknown,
unfelt for the living and it may even be worse than life itself. Due to all of this, the question
whether to be or not to be is the question full of mystery; Perhaps it’s better to be alive or to
be dead.

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If we look at the text of the monologue, it is clear that the first line of the soliloquy
establishes a a direct opposition – to be, or not to be. This continues with a consideration of
the way Hamlet should cope with the issue of life and death – being and not being. It has
become quite obvious to Hamlet that life is powerless in front of the blows of “outrageous
fortune”. From this point of view, the only logical action one can take against the unfiarness
of life (and the blows Hamlet names presents as empowering in the case of committing
suicide - killing oneself is being brave, taking up arms, “opposing and defeating the slings and
arrows of outrageous fortune”. On the other hand, unless one kills himself, living is a passive
state whilst dying becomes an active state.

Death is devoutly to be wished, it is “ a consummation”, an end, a sleep “perchance a dream”.

However, the sleep, the dream may not be peaceful, and here arises a “rub”- the fear of the
life , the obstacle that makes us pause and perhaps rethink our desires. As death is a sleep
and dream, it is also obvious that we may not control our dreams so what dreams may come
in that sleep in which we “have shuffled off this mortal coil 30”. With that thought, Hamlet
starts reconsidering his decidion. What will actually happen when we have freed ourselves
from the hustle and bustle of life? This sobering thought makes Hamlet reflect on a final end.
While describing the “ quietus “ he would experince, opposed by the living person’s
31
“grunting and sweating” under a weary life when dragging “fardels”? Who would bear
being loaded with all the unfair things when one could just draw a line with something as
simple as a bodkin?32

The next part of the sololoquay is dedicated to the voyages of discovery and the exploratory
expeditions death could bring about. Dying looks like crossing the border between the
known and unknown lands which could even hide unimagined and unseen horrors. “The
undiscover’d country … No traveller returns. “ these fears make human beings puzzle and
even makes them “bear those ills we have han fly to others that we know not of?”. Next
follows propbably the most significant sentence in the soliqloquay, the assumption that
‘conscience does make cowards of us all.’ And “thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied
o’er with the pale cast of thought, and enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard
their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action.–Soft you now!”

At the end of the soliloquy, Hamlet decides that too much thinking about it is the thing that
will prevent the action and therefore, he stops pondering about what to do. However, it’s not
30
Coil- fuss
31
Fardel- the load carried by a camel
32
A knitting needle –

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the fact that he both contemplates suicide and reflects on life. The critical point is that,
according to Hamlet, life is burdensome and devoid of power. Life is hard with “ the whips
and scorns of time, the oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, the pangs of despised
love, the law’s delay, the insolence of office and the spurns that patient merit of the
unworthy takes”. All this is opposed by the idea that however bad life is we still cannot do
anything about it by fear of the unknown. That is why we stay in this world even subdued
and powerless.

This soliloquy is well-known not only by the topicality and everlasness of the theme but by
stylistic means Shakespeare uses. For instance, repetitive employment of chiasmus is
noteworthy. In addition, this soliloquy is full of metaphors and memorable visual images.
For instance, “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” taking “arms against a sea of
troubles”, the “sleep of death,” “this mortal coil,” “the whips and scorns of time,” the
“undiscover’d country,” and “the pale cast of thought.” Shakespeare employs a number of
repetitions, metaphors and images. These metaphors and images lend a vivid quality to a
speech which might easily have been obscure, since it is philosophically rather abstract and
comes to a monumentally depressing conclusion (life is very bad and no one would bear it
but for the possibility that death may be even worse). Time and fate are repeatedly presented
as weapons or instruments of oppression while life itself is a burden, a “fardel,” under which
suffering humanity grunts and sweats. One of the first metaphors is "to take arms against a
sea of troubles," wherein this "sea of troubles" represents the agony of life, specifically
Hamlet’s own struggles with life and death and his ambivalence toward seeking revenge.
Hamlet’s "troubles" are so numerous and seemingly unending that they remind him of a vast
body of water. Another metaphor that comes later on in the soliloquy is this one: "The
undiscover'd country from whose bourn / No traveller returns." Here, Hamlet is comparing
the afterlife, or what happens after death, to an "undiscovered country" from which nobody
comes back (meaning you can’t be resurrected once you’ve died).

The phrase "to die, to sleep" is an example of repetition, as it appears once in line 5 and once
in line 9. Hearing this phrase twice emphasizes that Hamlet is really (albeit futilely)
attempting to logically define death by comparing it to what we all superficially know it to
be: a never-ending sleep.This literary device also paves the way for Hamlet’s turn in his
soliloquy, when he realizes that it’s actually better to compare death to dreaming because we
don’t know what kind of afterlife (if any) there is.

Practice Session

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1, Answer the following questions

1. What is foregrounding?

2. What are the types of linguistic deviations discussed by Leech?

3. What do the morphological and syntactic deviations describe?

4. How is Graphological deviation expressed?
5. What does Semantic deviaition show?

6. What is the main difference between ordinary, colloquial and dramatic speech?

7. What is the most important difference between ordinary and dramatic speech?

8. What do siloloquy and monologue have in common? What is the difference?

9. What are main points regarding the stylistic analysis of the poem?

10. Why is this particular poem interesting from the point of view of stylistics?

2 Analyse the poem below according to the guidelines discussed in the lecture

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]

By E. E. Cummings
i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
                                                      i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

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higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

2. No man is an island entire of itself; every man

is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. s; it tolls for thee.”

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LECTURE 13

FUTURE OF STYLISTICS

Stylistics is frequently defined more narrowly as the study of literary texts using linguistic
techniques. However, the methods of linguistics are also applicable in the analysis of non-
literary (non-fiction) texts as they are included in the analysis of literary texts. Although
stylisticians generally primarily concentrate on the analysis of so-called literary texts, this
was motivated by a desire to understand how literature works deal with other text-types.
One thing that everybody agrees on is that stylistics is linguistic in orientation and therefore,
it is based on the principles of linguistics. More specifically, stylistics has always allied itself
with linguistics in its view that objectivity and falsifiablity are keys to any analysis of a
literary text. Traditional literary criticism, on the other hand, believes that literary works can
only be discussed subjectively.
Leech describes Stylistics as a bridge discipline connecting linguistics and literary studies and
explains that ''by undertaking a linguistic analysis as part of the interralation between the
two fields of study, we faciltate and anticipate an interpretative synthesis (Leech, 2008:2) On
its basis, Leech describes stylistics as an interdiscipline, i.e it is an independent discipline
which is formed by the insights of other disciplines. Stylistics is concerned with both form
and function of a piece of language as well as the shared knowledge of writer and reader,
the social background, and the placing of the text in its cultural and historical context
(Leech, 2008:3). Leech also notes that stylistics is a practical discipline. It has developed and
improved its techniques through the application of theoretical frameworks to the practical
analysis of texts of all kinds. The success of this approach seems set to continue into the 21st
century.

NEW DIRECTIONS IN STYLISTIC ANALYSIS

As it has been mentioned above, stylistics takes insights from other disciplines which means
that it is a field of study that is always expanding and developing. Below we would like to
outline several directions that stylistics is currently taking.

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Ideology and stylistics
As we have mentioned several times, stylistics is neither theoretically nor in practice limited
to studying the language of literature. Having said that, there are many theories outside the
field of stylistics who consider stylistics and literary criticism to be identical.On the one
hand, it must also be admitted that there is a great deal more analysis of literary than of
other texts. However, having said this, it is also obvious that non-literary texts, speeches, gas
bills, love-letters, committee minutes, academic lectures, etc. can be analysed for their
stylistic features in just the same way as poems, plays and novels.
There is also, a new emerging field of stylistic analysis aiming to establish the ideological
basis of text meaning. The study of ideology in language has a long and respectable history
in feminist linguistics. Not all of this study is text-based, of course, and some is more
sociological and political than linguistic. However, some linguistic aspects are observed in
the works carried out in these fields which can still be called stylistic. Indeed, some of the
founders of the critical discourse analysis (CDA) (e.g Fowler, 1986) indicate this overlap in
technique, if not in aims, which has become increasingly evident in recent years.

Digital stylistics

As is known, technology is covering all subjects and disciplines. Amongst others, it can be
used in fields of knowledge like medicine, arts and social sciences. From this standpoint,
Stylistics can also take advantage of computer and digital technologies while analysing texts,
and this leads to the emergence of different approaches, such as stylometry and corpus
stylistics as development in computational linguistics and corpus lingusitics . These
approaches record and alalyse recurring linguistic features in texts of all types..

The latest linguistic turn within Stylistics is that of Corpus linguistics. Corpus
linguistics studies the language categories as expressed in corpora (samples) of "real world"
text. Corpus linguistics believes that language analysis is more feasible with corpora
collected in the field in its natural context ("realia"). In addition to linguistics research, the
assembled corpora are also used to compile dictionaries and grammar guides. It is believed
that corpus linguistics has gained its own status asa branch of Linguistics (see Shepherd,
2009). Corpus linguistic methods can assist the identification of elements of a text
concenring qualitative analysis.. In order to do this, corpus linguistics employs a number of
research methods, introduced by Wallis and Nelson (2001), such as Annotation, Abstraction
and Analysis.

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Stylometry is often defined as the quantitative study of literary style utilizing
computational and distant reading methods. This method is frequently used to attribute
authorship to anonymous or disputed documents and relies on the assumption that authors
usually tend to write in “relatively consistent, recognizable and unique ways” that is they use
small function words, such as articles, prepositions and conjunctions in their own, individual
ways. This is very advantageous for stylometry. This method is also utilised in forensic
linguistics and in cultural studies. For example, a considerable amount of research is
dedicated to the exploration of differences between the ways in which men and women
write. Finally, this method is employed while studying plagiarism and authorship issues.

Multimodal Analysis

Multimodal text analysis is becoming one of the most interesting parts of research as well of
teaching and practice for academic and practical disciplines. Stylistics, in this respect is
concerned with describing and explaining the communication of meaning within texts,
exploring semiotic resources other than the primary semiotic system-the language.
Multimodal analysis explores verbal and non-vebral means of communication, such as
gesture, gaze, proximics, dress, visual and aural art, stylistic devices, image-text relation and
page-layout, cinematographic and sound design and production resources (O’Halloran and
Smith). Multimodal analysis has emerged quite recently and is considered to be an important
challenge.

PRACTICE SESSIONS
1. Answer the following questions:

1. What are the principles stylistics relies on? Why?

2. What does Leech rely on while referring to Stylistics as interdiscipline? Do you agree
with that? Provide arguments
3. Which of the new trends in the development of Stylistics do you like more? Why?

SELF-ASSESEMENT TEST 2

1. State whether the following starements are True ot False:

1. Decoding stylistics is trapped within the frames of traditional stylistics T F

189
2. .Literary critics may base their analysis solely on their own tastes and attitudes T F
3. Decoding stylistics is based on the analysis of the language of the writer T F
4. Decoding stylistics never employes statistical data T F
5. Decoding Stylistic analysis is based on the text T F
6. The reader should be ready for the decoding of the informtion. T F
7. The process of decoding is simple and straightforward T F
8. The encoded and decoded messages may differ form each other T F
9. Decoding stylistics explores the same levels (phonetic, graphical, lexical, and grammatical levels) as
encoding stylistics T F
10. Decoding stylistics does not deal with isolated stylistic devices T F
11. Foregrounding was introduced by linguists from America T F
12. The Prague circle shared the ideas of structuralists T F
13, Phonology and theory of oppositions did not interest the Prague Circle T F
14. The Prague school is known to have introduced a functional approach to language. T F
16 Two main types of foregrounding: parallelism and deviation were suggested by the British school.
TF
17. Foregrounding is connected with certain functions of items in the language T F
18. Literary texts do not rely on foregrounded features as stylistically relevant T F
19. Convergence danotes similar ideas T F
20. Convergence is not connected with the bigger text/context T F
21. SD have fixed connotations T F
22. Defeated expectancy is associated with the writer/ speaker T F
23. Defeated expectancy may serve as a change into a homogenous text T F

24. The limited omniscient narrator is not focused on only one character’s mind. T F

25 FDT (Free Direct Thought) and FDS (Free Direct Speech) exhibit common features. T F
26 Stylistics deals only with literary texts T F
27 Stylistics deals with only one level of the language T F
28 Roman Jacobson belonged to the American School of Linguisctics T F
29.Russian school of formalism worked on the isolation of the properties of literary texts T F

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30. Bottom-up approach is synonymous to the deductive approach to the data T F
31. Deductive, theory-driven and top-down are not synonyms T F

32. Style is much broader than voice. T F

33. In CDA, discourses are classed as linguistic constructs T F

34. According to Barthes, intertextuality is the condition of existence of any text.
35. Iconotext is one of the types of Intertextuality. T F

2 . Choose the correct answer from a , b and c.

1. Who constructed a scale regarding marked/unmarked grammatical structures?

a) Chomsky b) Jacobson c) Leech

2. Generative linguictis school was founded by

a) Galperin b) Trubetskoy c) Chomsky

3. Semi-maked structures are part of the---------scale.

a) grammatical gradation b) stylistic gradation c) lexical gradation

4. Literarture is defined as the creative use of language by

a) Galperin b) Leech c)Arnold

4. QUESTIONS FOR REVISION

1. What are the main issues Decoding Stylistics deals with?

2. What is the difference between the analyses done by a stylistician and a literary critic?
3. What is defeated expectancy?
4. Describe the process of encoding/decoding of relevant information
5. What are the factors that can deter the process of decoding ?
6. Essential concepts of decoding stylistic analysis and types of foregrounding
7. What was the main contribution of the Prague circle to Linguistics?
8. Talk about a language as a dynamic system

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9. What does Foregrounding mean?
10. What does Arnold think regarding foregrounding?
11. What is convergence?
12. What are most importat criteria while analysing poems?
13. What are the most important directions Stylistics can develop?

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