STYLISTIC SYNTAX OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

 Stylistic syntax is aimed at finding out what expressive value a syntactical unit (sentence or other utterance)
possesses.

1) The reduction of the sentence pattern that lies in the deliberate omission of obligatory elements of the
sentence structure (ellipsis, aposiopesis, nominative sentences, incomplete sentences and asyndeton);
2) The redundancy of the sentence pattern that results from the addition of some sentence elements or their
deliberate repetition (repetition, enumeration, polysyndeton, emphatic constructions, parenthetical clauses
or sentences);
3) The violation of the grammatically fixed word order within a sentence or a deliberate isolation of some parts
of the sentence (stylistic inversion, syntactical split, suspense and detachment);
4) The shifts in syntactic meaning which result from changes in the use of syntactic forms (rhetorical
questions).

STYLISTIC FUNCTIONS OF SYNTACTIC CONSTRUCTIONS

 Stylistic properties of syntactic constructions based on the reduction of the sentence structure.

1) Ellipsis (Gk “leaving out”) is the absence of one or both principal parts (the subject, the predicate) in a
syntactical construction. The missing parts might be clearly understood from the context or are implied by
the situation. Elliptical sentences are, first and foremost, typical of conversational English.

He smiled again. “Fine . Where were you last Friday evening?”

“I had dinner with some friends” I said.
“Where?”
“Southport”
“And after that?”
“Had a drink in the bar of the Castle Hotel and went to bed.”
“Alone?”
“That’s right.”
“What time?”
“I don’t know, somewhere between eleven thirty and midnight.”
“What time did you have breakfast?”
“Eight o’clock‟
“So between midnight and eight you have no alibi?”
“Alibi for what?‟ (R. Pitman, J. McNally)

2) Nominative sentences are one-member sentences with a noun, a prepositional noun-phrase, or an adverb.
In contrast with elliptical sentences, they have only one principal part, with or without words modifying it.
“Jokes,” he said. “As a writer that’s your main trouble. You don’t
want to recognize it. Tragedy! Plain tragedy! Historical tragedy!
No hope. The end” (G. Paley).

3) Incomplete sentences are characterized by absence of auxiliary elements of the sentence (auxiliary verbs,
articles, prepositions, conjunctions).

“Has Dr. Thurmer written to your parents yet?”

“He said he was going to write them Monday” (T.D. Salinger)
  Aposiopesis (or break in the narrative) (Gk “becoming silent”) denotes a speaker‘s deliberate failure to complete
a sentence, which is caused by the influx of senses, consideration of time, notice that he/she gives out some
secret, unwillingness to proceed, inability or unwillingness to finish the utterance.

Period Price
by Joyce Cary
“Do you think I’m a selfish brute?”
“Of course not, Frank, you know I don’t. You’ve been most considerate
from the beginning. You’ve done your best to be fair to everyone.”
“Yes, but especially to myself, the mummy’s boy.”
“Why do you mean – I never said – ” (indignation)
It reflects the emotional state of the speaker: a sentence may be broken because the speaker‘s emotions
prevent him from finishing it.

 Asyndetic connection means a deliberate avoidance of conjunctions used to connect sentences, clauses, or
words. Asyndeton creates a certain rhythmical arrangement, usually making the narrative measured, energetic,
dynamic and tense.
That was a long time ago; she and her brothers and sisters were all
grown up; her mother was dead (J. Joyce).

STYLISTIC PROPERTIES OF SYNTACTIC CONSTRUCTIONS BASED ON THE REDUNDANCY OF THE SENTENCE STRUCTURE

 Repetition is a reiteration of the same word or phrase to lay an emphatic stress on certain parts of the sentence.
“Would you do something for me now?”
“I’d do anything for you.”
“Would you please please please please please please please stop
talking?”
(E. Hemingway).
 ordinary repetition, i.e. a repetition of a word in close succession, Minnie remained where she was,
sitting quite still, her eyes fixed on the young man’s averted face. She was happy, happy, happy. The
long day ripened and ripened, perfection after perfection (A. Huxley).
 anaphora: the beginning of two or more successive sentences (clauses) is repeated (very often it is used
in parallel constructions).
Let the rain kiss you.
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.
Let the rain sing you a lullaby.
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk.
The rain makes running pools in the gutter
The rain plays a little sleep-song on your roof at night –
And I love the rain.

 epiphora: the end of successive sentences (clauses) is repeated. The main function of epiphora is to stress the
final words of a sentence: The thing was a bit of a fraud; yes, really, he decided, rather a fraud (A. Huxley).

 framing or ring repetition, i.e. a repetition in which the opening word or phrase is repeated at the end of the
sentence or a group of sentences. The function of framing is to elucidate the notion mentioned in the beginning
of the sentence. Obviously – this is a streptococcal infection. Obviously.
  anadiplosis or catch repetition, i.e. device in which the last word or phrase of one clause, sentence, or line is
repeated at the beginning of the next

 Enumeration is a repetition of homogeneous parts of the sentence, aimed at emphasizing the whole utterance,
e.g.: He had come near quietly, and he leaned over the wire fence that protected her flower garden from cattle
and dogs and chickens (J. Steinbeck).

 Polysyndeton (Gk “much compounded”) is opposite to asyndeton and means a repetition of conjunctions in close
succession which are used to connect sentences, clauses, or words and make the utterance more rhythmical.

 In most cases the conjunction and is repeated, as in: The horizon narrowed and widened, and dipped
and rose, and at all times its edge was jagged with waves that seemed thrust up in points like rocks (S.
Crane).

I know a little of the principal of design, and I know this thing was not
arranged on any laws of radiation, or alternation, or repetition, or
symmetry, or anything else that I ever heard of (Ch. P. Gilman).

 Emphatic constructions (the emphatic construction with ‘do’, ‘it is smb/smth who/that’, ‘it is by/with/through
smth that’, ‘it is then that) may intensify any member of a sentence, giving it more prominence.

It was then that Byrne had his first glimpse of the little cloaked man in a yellow hat
(J. Conrad). It was the horses he loved; he spoke little to the jockeys (R. Pitman, J.
McNally).

 Parenthesis (Gk ‘put in beside‘) is a word, phrase or clause put into a sentence which is grammatically complete
without the insertion. The functions of parenthesis are those of exemplification, deliberation, or reference.

STYLISTIC PROPERTIES OF SYNTACTIC CONSTRUCTIONS BASED ON THE VIOLATION OF THE GRAMMATICALLY FIXED
WORD ORDER WITHIN A SENTENCE

 Inversion is the syntactic reversal of the normal order of the words and phrases in a sentence: the placing of an
adjective after the noun it modifies (“he form divine”), a verb before its subject (“came the dawn”), or a noun
preceding its preposition (“worlds between”). Inversion is most commonly used in poetry in which it may both
satisfy the demands of the meter and achieve emphasis.

I.R. Galperin distinguishes between the following patterns of stylistic inversion

most frequently used in English prose and poetry [Galperin, 1977).

 The object is placed at the beginning of the sentence: “Talent Mr. Micawber has; capital Mr. Micawber has
not” (Ch. Dickens.)
 The attribute is placed after the word it modifies: “Once upon a midnight dreary…”(E.A. Poe).
 The predicative is placed before the subject: “A good generous prayer it was” (M. Twain).
 The adverbial modifier is placed at the beginning of the sentence:
o Often they came very close and stared at the men with black bead-like eyes (St. Crane).
o Out of a dark and soft-seated limousine I am ushered into a bright room filled with many
people (A. Walker).
  Both modifier and predicate stand before the subject:
She braved it for a moment or two with an eye full of love and stubbornness,
and murmured a phrase or two vaguely of General Pinkey; but at length down
went her head and out came the truth and tears (O. Henry).

A typical case of stylistic inversion is when the predicate is placed before the subject. For example:
In one of these cells were several globes or balls of a most ponderous metal,
about the bigness of our heads … (J. Swift).

 Separation or syntactical split is the splitting of a noun phrase by the attribute adjunct which is removed from
the word it modifies. Stylistically, syntactical split is used to emphasize the phrase which was separated, e.g.:
He had never seen the truth before, about anything (R. Warren).

 Detachment is a separation of a secondary part of the sentence with the aim of emphasizing it. In this case
some parts of the sentence are syntactically separated from other members with which they are grammatically
and logically connected. Mrs. Rymer was a tall woman, big-boned (A. Christie).

 Rhetorical questions are negative or affirmative statements rather than questions, possible answers being
implied by the question itself. Rhetorical questions can often be found in modem fiction in the descriptions of
the character‘s inner state, his/her meditations and reflections.

STYLISTIC EFFECTS OF PECULIAR ARRANGEMENT OF SYNTACTICAL CONSTRUCTIONS IN A SEQUENCE

 Parallelism (Gk “alongside one another”) is a repetition of similar syntactic structures in close proximity.
Parallelism may be complete and partial.
 Complete parallelism is observed when the syntactical pattern of the sentence that follows is
completely identical to the preceding one.
 Partial parallelism is considered when either the beginning or the end of several neighbouring
sentences is structurally similar
I don’t know why I should write this.
I don’t want to.
I don’t feel able (Ch. P. Gilman).

Parallel structures have great perceptual prominence, they invite the reader to search for meaning connections
between the parallel constructions and in particular in terms of the parts which are different. M. Short calls it
the “parallelism rule” (Short, 1996), which runs that parallel structures have semantic relationships of
quasisynonymy or quasiantonomy between the parallel parts.

1) it helps the reader to perceive some associations and not others;

2) it pushes the reader towards perceiving semantic relations between words and phrases which do not
exist as such in the language system as a whole;
3) by relating parts of a text together it acts as a powerful means of foregrounding.

 Chiasmus (reversed parallelism) (Gk “a placing crosswise”) is a kind of parallelism where the word order of the
sentence or clause that follows becomes inverted.
Love’s fire heats water, water cools not love (W. Shakespeare, Sonnet 154).