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Stylistics
Stylistics as a Branch of Linguistics. Its Aim and Tasks. General Notes on
Style and Stylistics.
General Notes on Styles and Stylistics

Stylistics — general branch of linguistics.

2 fields of investigation:

1. expressive means (EM) and stylistic devices (SD); 2. functional styles

Style applies to the following fields of investigation:

1) The aesthetic function of language;

2) Expressive means in language;

3) Synonymous ways of rendering one and the same idea;

4) Emotional colouring in language;

5) A system of special devices called stylistic devices;

6) The splitting of the literary language into separate subsystems called functional styles;

7) The interrelation between language and thought;

8) The individual manner of an author in making use of language.

1. style is the correspondence between thought and expression: 2 functions of the language
— communicative and expressive.

2. style — embellishment of language. Language and style are regarded as separate bodies, style
as an embellishment of language is viewed as something that hinders understanding.

3. style — technique of expression. Style is about grammar, not stylistically. The ability to write
clearly, correctly and in a manner calculated to the interest of the reader.

4. style — a literary genre. Thus we speak of classical style or the style of classicism; realistic style;
the style of romanticism.

5. different styles of language. 1) the belles- lettres style; 2) the publicistic style; 3) the newspaper
style; 4) the scientific prose style; 5) the style of official documents and presumably some others.
Expressive Means (EM) and Stylistic Devices (SD)

The expressive means — phonetic means, morphological forms, means of word-building, and
lexical, phraseological and syntactical forms, all of which function in the language for emotional or
logical intensification of the utterance. These intensifying forms of the language have been fixed in
grammars and dictionaries. In most cases they have corresponding neutral synonymous forms.

Stylistic device (SD) — a conscious and intentional intensification of some typical structural and/or
semantic property of a language unit (neutral or expressive) promoted to a generalised status and
thus becoming a generative model.

phonetic — pitch, melody, stress, pausation, drawling out certain syllables, whispering

morphological expressive means — for example, historical present — the use of the Present
indefinite instead of the Past Indefinite must be mentioned first.

word-building means — diminutive suffixes as - у (- ie), - let, e.g., dear, dearie, stream, streamlet,
add some emotional coloring to the words.

lexical level — words with emotive meaning only, like interjections, words which have both
referential and emotive meaning, like some of the qualitative adjectives, words belonging to special
groups of Literary English (poetic, archaic) or of non - standard English ( slang, vulgar, etc.)

set expressions of the language — proverbs and sayings

Stylistics observes not only the nature of an expressive means, but also its potential capacity of
becoming a stylistic device.

Unlike expressive means stylistic devices are patterns of the language.

Different Branches of Stylistics:

I.R.Galperin:

a) Stylistics studies stylistic devices and expressive means which secure the desirable effect of the
utterance;

b) Studies certain types of text “discourse” (functional styles).

Depending on the school of thought there are:

1) Linguo-stylistics — the study of literary discourse from a linguistic orientation.

2) Literary stylistics explicates the message of the literary work

3) Decoding stylistics:

Sender - message - receiver; speaker - book - reader.

Practical stylistics is the applied stylistics (people use it :))

Stylistically neutral words are opposed to Stylistically charged words.

Stylistic norm is the invariant of the phonemic, morphological, lexical and syntactical patterns
circulating in language-in-action at a given period of time

Types of stylistic research

literary stylistics аnd linguo-stуlistiсs. Both study:

1. the literary language from the point of view of its variability;

2. the idiolect (individual speech) of а writer;

3. poetic speech that has its own specific laws.

The points of difference proceed from the different points of analysis. While linguo-stylistics
studies:

1. Functional styles (in their development and current state).

2. The linguistic nature of the expressive means of the language, their systematic character and
their functions .

Literary stylistics is focused оn:

1. The composition of а work of art;

2. Various literary genres;

3. Тhе writer's outlook.

The Semantic Structure of a Word. Denotative and Connotative Meanings.

Stylistics shows the opposition between contextual and denotative meaning.

Semantic structure of words consists of grammatical meaning (noun, verb…) and lexical meaning.

Connotative meaning consists of 4 components

1. Emotive – words that refer to emotions “he punched the wall” = anger
2. Evaluative – irony, positive or negative – speaker’s attitude
3. Expressive – pretty little thing
4. Stylistic – functional style or specific vocab (archaism, jargonism)

Galperin’s classification

1. Logical (referential) - denotative meaning

2. Nominal – proper nouns
3. Emotive – coloring visible in context
 Phonetic Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices.
Phonetic Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices

The stylistic approach to the utterance is not confined to its structure and sense, sound is also
important.
It is in combination with other words that a word may acquire a desired phonetic effect.

The theory of sense - independence of separate sounds is based on a subjective interpretation of

sound associations and has nothing to do with objective scientific data. Please I refuse to keep the
huynia she wrote here.

Euphony is a harmony of form and contents, an arrangement of sound combinations, producing a

pleasant effect.
Cacophony is the opposite of euphony.
Onomatopoeia (direct and indirect) is an imitation of sounds of nature. Therefore the relation
between onomatopoeia and the phenomenon it is supposed to represent is one of metonymy.
E.g. bubble, splash, rustle, purr, flop, babble, giggle, whistle.
Direct onomatopoeia (natural sounds): ding-dong, burr, bang, cuckoo. It’s the use of words whose
sounds imitate those of the signified object of action.
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”: “And the silken, sad, uncertain
rustling of each purple curtain” (E.A.Poe), where the repetition of the sound [s] actually produces
the sound of the rustling of the curtain.
Alliteration (repetition of similar sounds, as a rule, consonant sounds) aims at imparting a melodic
effect to the utterance.: “Deep into the darkness peering, /long I stood there wondering, fearing,
doubting, dreaming /dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before” (E.A.Poe).
Assonance (repetition of similar vowels, usually in stressed syllables)
e.g. Tell this soul, with sorrow laden, if within the distant Aiden, // I shall clasp a sainted maiden,
whom the angels name Lenore // Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels name Lenore?
(E.Poe - Raven)
1) повтор согласных или гласных звуков в начале близко расположенных ударных слогов
e.g. Doom is dark and deeper than any sea dingle. (W.Auden)
2) повтор начальных букв: e.g. Apt Alliteration’s artful aid. (W.Auden)
Rhyme (repetition of identical or similar terminal sound combination of words). Rhyming words are
generally placed at a regular distance from each other. In verses they are usually placed at the end
of the corresponding lines.
Full rhymes: presuppose 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 vowel rhymes: vowels are identical, consonants are not: flesh - fresh - press.
Incomplete consonant rhymes: identical consonants, different vowels: worth - forth, tale - tool -
treble - trouble; flung - long.
Compound/broken rhymes: one word rhymes with a combination of words; two or three words
rhyme with a corresponding two or three words, as in “upon her honour - won her”.
Eye-rhyme: the letters and not the sounds are identical, as in love - prove, flood - brood, have -
grave.
Types of rhymes (indz chen hetaqrqrum bayc karaq lekciayum nayeq xoxo)
1) Couplet: aa: The seed ye sow, another reaps; (a)
The wealth ye find, another keeps; (a)
2) Triplet: aaa: And on the leaf a browner hue, (a)
And in the heaven that clear obscure, (a)
So softly dark, and darkly pure, (a)
3) Cross rhymes: abab:
It is the hour when from the boughs (a)
The nightingales’ high note is heard ;( b)
It is the hour when lovers’ vows (a)
Seem sweet in every whispered word, (b)
4) Frame (ring): abba:
He is not here; but far away (a)
The noise of life begins again, (b)
And ghastly thro ’the drizzling rain (b)
On the bald streets breaks the blank day (a)
5) Internal rhyme
“I dwelt alone (a) in a world of moan, (a)
And my soul was a stagnant tide.”
Rhythm. In verse 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.
Academician V.M.Zhirmunsky: metre ≠ rhythm.
Metre is any form of periodicity in verse, its kind being determined by the character and number of
syllables of which it consists.
Rhythm is flexible and sometimes an effort is required to perceive it. In classical verse it is
perceived at the background of the metre. In accented verse - by the number of stresses in a line.
In prose - by the alternation of similar syntactical patterns.
Rhythm is a combination of the ideal metrical scheme and its variations, which are governed by the
standard.

English metrical patterns:

1) iambic metre: -/-/-/:
Those evening bells,
Those evening bells
2) trochaic metre: /-/- :Welling waters, winsome words (Swinborne)
3) dactylic metre: /- - / - -: Why do you cry Willie?
Why do you cry?
4) amphibrachic metre: -/-: A diller, a dollar, a ten o’clock scholar…
5) anapaestic metre: - -/- - /: Said the flee, ‘Let us fly’,
Said the fly, ‘Let us flee’,
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.

GRAPHIC EXPRESSIVE MEANS

1. Graphic expressive means — changes of the type, spading of graphemes and lines:
a) Italics (single out epigraphs, citations, foreign words, allusions; add logical or emotive
significance)
b) Capitalization (used in case of personification or emphasis)
c) Spacing;
d) Hyphenation (rhymed or clipped manner in which the word is uttered:” e.g. “grinning like a chim-
pan-zee”)
e) Steps;
f) Multiplication (intensity of speech *allll aboarrrd*)
2. Graphon (intentional violation of the graphical shape of a word or word combination used to
reflect its authentic pronunciation, to recreate the individual and social peculiarities of the speaker,
the atmosphere of the communication act)
Graphon is referred to all changes of the type (italics, CapiTaliSation), s p a c i n g of graphemes
(hy-phe-na-ti-on, m-m-multiplication) and of lines.
“Ah like ma droap o’Scatch, d’ye ken” (Scotch accent). – I like my drop of Scotch.
gimme, lemme, gonna, gotta, coupla, mighta, willya.
MORPHOLOGICAL LEVEL OF STYLISTIC ANALYSIS
Morphemic foregrounding (adds logical, emotive and expressive connotation):
1) Repetition of a morpheme (both root and affixal)
It stresses contrast, negation, absence of quality, smallness in words with the help of different
affixes: anti -, a-; mis -, -ling, -ette: starling, kitchenette, disadvantage;
E.g. “I’ll disown you, I’ll disinherit you, I’ll unget you.”
2) Extension of morphemic valency.
It adds emotive and evaluative connotational meaning in degrees of comparison of the occasional
character:
“I love you mucher! Plenty mucher? Me toer!” (J.Br.)
Occasional words (Nonce-words) are based on extension of the normative valency which results in
the formation of new words (NOT neologisms, bc created for special communicative situations only,
and are not used beyond these occasions).
E.g. mother-in-lawed, not-thereness.
E.g. I am an undersecretary of an underbureau. (I.Shaw)

Lexical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices.

Transferred meaning - interrelation between dictionary and contextual meaning

When the dictionary acknowledged meaning is carried to a degree that it causes an unexpected
turn in the recognized logical meaning, we register a stylistic device.

The transferred meaning of a word may be fixed in dictionaries as a result of long and frequent use
of the word other than in its primary meaning. In this case we register a derivative meaning of the
word. When the word realizes the primary logical and derivative meanings simultaneously, we
register a stylistic device.

1. Interaction of Dictionary and Contextual Logical Meaning

A metaphor is a relation between the dictionary and contextual logical meanings based on the
affinity or similarity. Metaphors which are absolutely unexpected are called genuine metaphors.
E.g.,Through the open window the dust danced and was golden.

Those which are commonly used in speech and are sometimes fixed in the dictionaries are trite
metaphors or dead metaphors e.g. a flight of fancy, floods of tears.

Metonymy is based on some kind of association connecting the two concepts which these
meanings represent on proximity (contiguity). So, metonymy is based on the substitution of one
object for another. “the White House” instead of “the US President”.

The proximity (contiguity) may be revealed:

1) Between the symbol and the thing it denotes; crown, scepter;(crown stands for king or queen).

2) Between the instrument and the action performed with this instrument; e.g. His pen is rather
sharp.

3) The container and the thing it contains; e.g. He drank one more cup.

4) The concrete is put for the abstract; e.g. It was a representative gathering (science, politics).

5) A part is put for the whole; e.g., the crown - king, a hand - worker.
Irony is a stylistic device also based on the simultaneous realization of two logical meanings -
dictionary and contextual, but the two meanings are in opposition to each other.

E.g., “The garden bore witness to a love of growing plants which extended to many types
commonly known as weeds. (J.Wain). Nice weather, isn't it? (on a rainy day).

2. Interaction of Primary and Derivative Logical Meanings

Primary and derivative meanings are characterized by their relative stability and are fixed in
dictionaries

Zeugma is a figure of speech in which a word applies to two other words of which it semantically
suits only one

John lost his coat and his temper.

The pun (play on words) is based on simultaneous realization of two meanings of a polysemantic
word or the usage of two homonyms in the same context. It creates a play on words. A pun is often
seen as a form of joke and adds a double meaning.

- Have you ever seen him at the bar?

- Thousand times. He was a drunkard.

Semantically false chain is a variety of zeugma consisting of a number of homogeneous

members, semantically disconnected, but attached to the same verb. It is based on the effect of
defeated expectancy and produces a humorous effect.

“Babbitt respected bigness in anything: in mountains, jewels, muscles, wealth of words”

3. Interaction of Logical and Emotive Meaning

Interjections and Exclamatory Words.

In traditional grammars the interjection is regarded as a part of speech. But there is another view
which regards the interjection as a sentence. However, a close investigation proves that interjection
is a word with strong emotive meaning.

E.g., Oh, where are you going to, all you Big Steamers?

Interjections can be divided into primary and derivative. Primary interjections are generally devoid
of any logical meaning (Ah, Oh). Derivative interjections – (Well; fine; alas; gosh; well). Interjections
such as: Heavens! Good gracious! God knows! Bless me! are exclamatory words generally used as
interjections. It must be noted that some adjectives and adverbs can also take on the function of
interjections - such as Terrible! Awfully! Great! Wonderful! Splendid!

Epithet is based on the interplay of emotive and logical meaning in an attributive word, phrase or
even sentence, used to characterize an object and pointing out to the reader some of the properties
or features of the object with the aim of giving an individual perception and evaluation of these
features or properties

Classification of Epithets

From the point of view of structure:

1) Simple e.g. He looked at them in animal panic.

2) Compound: e.g., apple - faced man;

3) Sentence and phrase epithets e.g. It is his do - it – yourself attitude.

4) Reversed epithets - composed of 2 nouns linked by an of phrase: e.g., “a shadow of a smile”.

According to I.R.Galperin, epithets semantically can be:

1) associated with the noun following it, pointing to a feature which is essential to the objects they
describe: dark forest; careful attention.

2) unassociated with the noun, epithets that add a feature which is unexpected:

smiling sun, voiceless sounds.

According to another classification of epithets (V.A.Kucharenko):

1) Tautological epithets: “green grass”

2) Evaluative epithets: “a pompously majestic female”

3) Descriptive epithets: “an unnaturally mild day”

4) Metaphorical epithets: “the smiling sun”

5) Metonymical epithets: “the sleepless pillow”

Oxymoron is a combination of two words in which the meaning is opposite in sense: e.g., speaking
silence, cold fire,

Trite oxymoron. E.g., awfully beautiful.

Close to oxymoron is paradox - a statement that is absurd on the surface. E.g., War is peace.

In oxymoron the logical meaning holds fast because there is no true word combination.

4. Interaction of Logical and Nominal Meaning

Antonomasia is a SD based on the usage of a common noun instead of a proper name and vice
versa to characterize the person simultaneously with naming him – the so-called “speaking
names»: Mister Logic. Every Caesar has his Brutus.

Tropes and Figures of Speech.

Stylistic semasiology studies tropes and figures of speech (I.V.Arnold, U.Screbnev),

expressive means and stylistic devices (I.R.Galperin, V.A.Kucharenko).

Tropes and figures of speech are based on imagery which is realized through the interrelation of
different components of denotational and connotational meaning of words and word combinations.

Literature images - verbal images are pen - pictures of a thing, person or idea expressed in a
figurative way in their contextual meaning
Lexical expressive meanings in which a word or word combination is used figuratively are called
tropes.

Tropes - representation or manifestation of category of variation on the paradigmatic level . Based

on association, analogy and transferred meaning of the word

Tropes are Lexical SD according to Galperin

Figures of speech - manifestation of category of variation on the syntagmatic level

Based on special arrangement of words, constructions

Figures of speech - syntactical EM and SD

The interaction (simultaneous use) of the dictionary and contextual meanings of a word brings to
transferred meaning. Transferred meaning is registered in dictionaries and is called derivative
meaning.

Their verbal meaning has the following structure:

1. Tenor (direct thought) objective; (T)

2. Vehicle (figurative thought) subjective; (V)

3. Ground of comparison is the common feature of T and V; (G)

4. The relation between T and V;

5. The technique of identification (The type of trope);

Prof. Screbnev’s classification of TROPES:

Figures of QUANTITY:

Hyperbole; Meiosis: Understatement and Litotes.

Figures of QUALITY:

METAPHOR: Periphrasis, Allusion, Personification, Allegory.

METONYMY: Synecdoche.

● The metaphorical group (metaphor, personification, allegory).

Metaphor is a trope in which words denoting one object are transferred to others to indicate a
resemblance between them. Metaphor indicates resemblance or similarity of shape, function,
position

The components of a metaphor;

1) tenor;

2) vehicle;

3) Tertium comparationis.

Personification is based on transference from the qualities of animate objects to inanimate ones:
 ● The metonymical group (metonymy, synecdoche) is based on contiguity
The relations are: causal, symbolic, spatial, instrumental, and functional:

Synecdoche: using the name of a part instead of the whole or vice versa: “To be a comrade with a
wolf and owl.”

Stylistic functions of tropes:

1) bringing out the message of the work of art: “A Farewell to Arms”, “For Whom the Bell Tolls”,
“Say No to Death”;

2) serving as a kind of symbol: “the roaring sea” (anxiety)

3) expressing the philosophical concept: “All the King’s Men”;

4) expressing the emotive and evaluative attitude of the writer towards the object described: “The
Peacelike Mongoose” (J.Thurber)

5) Describing characters: “The machine sitting at the desk was no longer a man, it was a busy N.Y.
broker” (O. Henry)

Syntactical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices.

The effect of syntactical stylistic devices depends on either the completeness or
quantitative characteristics of the structure or on the arrangement of its members.

Completeness and quantitative characteristics

The omission/absence of elements

Syntactical SD with missing elements:

● Ellipsis - absence of one or both principal parts – the subject, the predicate; typical
of colloquial speech; usually used in dialogues, in represented speech, absence of
auxiliary elements
● One-member sentences - statement of the existence of an object, a
phenomenon; due to their laconic character one-member sentences appeal to the
reader’s imagination;
Spring, the sky, the flowers.

● Break or aposiopesis - abstention from continuing the utterance to the end, to

mark the break mainly dashes and dots are used
● Asyndeton is a deliberate avoidance of conjunctions
● Apokoinu constructions - the omission of the pronominal / adverbial connective,
that creates a blend of the main and subordinate clauses
I bring him news will raise his dripping spirits. He was the man killed the bear.

The redundancy/excess of non-essential elements:

● Repetition - prosto repetition slov

● Polysyndeton - repetition of conjunctions
 ● Prolepsis, or syntactic tautology - recurrence of the noun subject in the form of
the corresponding personal pronoun
“Miss Tillie Webster, she slept forty days and nights without waking up” (O. Henry)

● Tautology in appended statements (as in “I washed my hands and face afore I

come, I did…”, from Bernard Shaw) xz voobshe
● e) The usage of the emphatic introductory construction It + be; What S–V+ is
● f) Parallel construction or parallelism is a purely syntactical type of repetition,
here we deal with the reiteration of the same structure of several successive
sentences, clauses.
● g) chiasmus is reversed parallelism: a b, b a
E.g., “I looked at the gun and the gun looked at me” (R.Ch.)

Distribution (arrangement) of the elements

1. Stylistic inversion aims at attaching logical stress or additional emotional coloring to

the surface meaning of the utterance. Inversion is based on the partial or complete
replacement of the language elements and violation of the word order:

1. The object is placed at the beginning of the sentence, e.g. Talent Mr. John has.

2. The attribute is placed after the word it modifies, e.g. With fingers weary and worn.

3. a) The predicative is placed before the subject, e.g. A good generous prayer it was.

b) the predicate precedes the subject (the predicative is before the link verb and both are
placed before the subject), e.g. Rude am I in my speech.

4. The adverbial modifier is placed at the beginning of the sentence.

Eagerly I wished the morrow.

5. Both modifier and predicate stand before the subject

Into the room came a stranger

Stylistic inversion does not change the grammatical type of the syntactical
structure.

They slid down.

Did they slide down? (grammatical inversion)

Down they slid. (stylistic inversion).

2. Suspense is a deliberate postponement of the completion of the sentence.It is realized

through the separation of the Predicate from the Subject by deliberate introduction between
them of a clause or a sentence.
“Of all my association, of all my old pursuits and hopes, of all the living and the dead world,
this one poor soul alone comes natural to me” (D.)

3. Detached constructions - a stylistic device based on singling out a secondary member

of the sentence with the help of punctuation (intonation).

E.g., She was gone. For good.

The punctuation marks used are mainly commas. The word-order is not violated, but
secondary members obtain their own stress and intonation.

4. Parenthetic words, phrases and sentences mostly evaluate what is said or supply
some kind of additional information.

Parenthetic segments perform a number of stylistic functions, such as:

(a) the creation of a second plane, or background to the narrative;

(b) the creation of a mingling of ‘voices’ of different speech parties (‘polyphony’);

(c) focusing on the information in parentheses.

Special punctuation marks the usage of parenthesis. It usually includes using dashes or
brackets; commas are possible but infrequent.

5. Enumeration is a chain of grammatically and semantically homogeneous units of the

utterance. E.g., She wasn't sure of anything and more, of him, herself, their friends, her
work, her future.

6. Rhetorical question is one that expects no answer. It is asked in order to make a

statement rather than to get a reply. The speaker knows the answer and often gives it
immediately after the question. The positive form of a rhetorical question calls for the
negative answer, and the negative form – for the positive.

7. Question-in-the-narrative - the questions asked, unlike rhetorical questions, do not

contain statements. Question-in-the-narrative is very often used in oratory.

8. Repetition:

The Types of Repetition on the Lexico-Syntactical Level

• anaphora a…, a…, a…/ Repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of two or more
consecutive clauses or sentences.

• epiphora …a, …a, …a.

• framing abca. Repetition occurs at the beginning of a paragraph and at the end of it.

• anadiplosis (catch repetition) …a, a…

E.g., It was a terrible event, an event that shocked everyone.

• chain repetition …a, a…b, b…c, c…

• ordinary repetition …a, …a…, a… - has no definite place in the sentence and the
repeated unit occurs in various positions;

• successive repetition … a, a, a … The word or unit appears in close succession.

• synonymic repetition – the repetition of the same idea by using synonymic words or
phrases

9. Climax (gradation) is based on the usage of homogeneous members which are

arranged in ascending or descending scale, reaching climax or the highest (the lowest)
point of intensity or expressiveness. Climax is marked by parallelism, enumeration and
repetition.

“The liar! The brute! The monster! (Emotive climax, ascending scale)

10. Antithesis is a semantic opposition emphasized in similar structures, often involving

two antonyms: Don’t use big words. They mean so little.

11. Anticlimax (bathos) represents climax suddenly interrupted by an unexpected turn of

the thought that defeats expectations of the reader; it involves adding one weaker element
to one or several strong ones, mentioned before .

“Early rise and early to bed makes a male healthy and wealthy and dead”

12. Very close to bathos is paradox, a SD presenting a self-contradicting idea, which

nonetheless seems true

War is peace.

13. Represented speech is a form of utterance which conveys the actual words of the
speaker through the mouth of the writer but retains the peculiarities of the speaker's mode
of expression.

14. Apostrophes frequently target an absent person or a third party. As a literary device,
apostrophe refers to a speech or address to a person who is not present or to a personified
object, such as Yorick's skull in Hamlet.

The difference between personification and apostrophe is that personification gives human
qualities to animals, objects, and ideas, while apostrophe has characters talking aloud to
objects and ideas as if they were human.

Apostrophes show up in everyday speech all the time. For example, someone waiting at a
red light might say, “Come on, light, turn green!”

Lexico-Syntactical SD
Simile - comparison. Like
Periphrasis - roundabout way

Logical- based on inherent properties - feathered friends

Figurative - imagery - tie the knot

Euphemism- soft way to say unpleasant things

Hyperbole - exaggeration - died laughing

Litote - using negation - he is no good man

Set of expressions

Proverbs and sayings - included in dictionary. Usually rhymes and has a rhythm. Compact way to
express meaning.

Cliche - overused phrase. Element of artistic work

Epigram - brief memorable bookish expression coined by individuals

Quotation- phrase repeated from literature or speech

Allusion - historical mythological biblical reference - Achilles heel

The Belles-Lettres Style.

Functional stylistics – system of language means used for a certain aim in
communication. Language means + stylistic devices = functional style

Stylistic functions - communicative, voluntative/conative (expressing intention), phatic

(attracting attention), aesthetic (appealing emotional response)

Belles-Lettres - Its function is cognitive and aesthetic

It uses

- genuine imagery

- contextual meaning prevailing over denotation

- the individual choice of vocab by the author

- special lexical and syntactical selection

- colloquial language (in drama)

poetry - uses rhythm and rhyme

emotive prose - mix of literary and colloquial writing.

drama - mainly dialogues. Uses literary English, variety of spoken language, uninterrupted
monologues, too much information to show expression

The Publicistic Style.

Publicistic - oratory, essay, articles in newspaper and magazines

Oratory - direct address to audience, 1st-2nd personal pronouns, Parallelism, antithesis, climax,
repetition

Radio and TV commentary - less impersonal, more expressive

The Newspaper Style.

Newspaper - brief news, headlines, add and announcements, press reports - Political and
economical terms, newspaper cliches, abbreviations, neologisms, complex syntax

Headline - brief information, reporters attitude - full declarative sentences, interrogation, elliptical
sentences, question-statements, headlines with direct speech

Advertisements - inform the reader - classified (birth, marriage, death) and non-classified
(graphical, stylistic means to attract attention)

The Scientific Prose Style.

Scientific prose - exact science, humanitarian science, popular science - precise language,
footnotes, terms, quotations, references, logical sequence of utterances, postulatory and
argumentative sentence patterns) , key words, passive voice, pronoun substitutes, it-construction

The Style of Official Documents.

Official document - diplomatic documents, business letters, military documents, legal documents -
conventionality, unemotiveness, symbols and abbreviations
Structure of a business letter - heading, reference, date, inside address, opening salutation, body,
complimentary close, enclosure

Legal document - conservative, denotational meaning, compositional grammar pattern, archaic

words, words of Latin and French origin, passive constructions

Theoretical English Grammar

Systemic Nature of Language: Language as a System; Units of Language
Systemic nature

Relations between lingual units can be

 Syntagmatic – linear, sequenced, horizontal relation

 Paradigmatic – “vertical” relations. Toy-toys, small-smaller. Cannot go together in the same
sentence. Paradigm is a set of grammemes represented by all gram. forms of a word

Units of language

 Segmental – units of the levels, such as phonemes, morphemes, lexemes.

 Supra-segmental – units that don’t exist by themselves: pause, accent, intonation

Language as a system

1. Phonemic level – phoneme (sound) is the smallest, meaningless unit

2. Morphemic level – morpheme (part of a word) is the smallest meaningful unit: affixes and
roots
3. Lexemic level – lexeme (word)
4. Phrasemic level/Minor Syntax – a phrase is a combination of 2+ lexemes
5. Proposemic level/Major Syntax – units are sentences
6. Supra-proposemic level – combination of sentences = text

Synthetic and Analytical Languages; The Grammatical Structure of the

English Language
Languages are analytical and synthetic by their grammatical structure.

Synthetic – grammatical forms are expressed by inflections

Analytical – grammatical forms are expressed by the order and combination of separate words

Analytical forms in the English lang. are mostly proper to verbs. They are made up of 2 or more
components (auxiliary and notional). Analytical forms are used in forming the tense, voice and the
mood of the verb.

Though modern English is an analytical language there are some survivals of synthetic structure.

They are

a) the use of endings(inflectional morphemes) – outer inflection (book – books, baker –

baker’s, cook – cooked-cooking, show-shown)
b) the use of sound change (sound alteration)- inner inflection (man-men, write-wrote)
 the use of suppletive forms – grammatical forms expressed in different roots (Be – am – is –
was – were – are, go – went, I – me, good – better, bad – worse)

The Noun and Its Grammatical Categories

Nouns have

Grammatical meaning = thingness

Form = morphological characteristics

Syntactic function = subject, object, predicative….

Common noun oppositions

proper and common nouns

animate and inanimate nouns

human and non-human (on the basis of personal quality)

countable and uncountable

concrete and abstract

category of number

vowel interchange = man-men

archaic ending -en/-ren = child-children

foreign endings = cactus-cacti, index-indices, phenomenon-phenomena

There are semantic varieties of the plural form. It may express

a definite sets of objects ( wheels of the car)

various sorts of referents (wines, fruits, teas, fishes)

intensity of the presentation of an idea (years and years)

picturesqueness (sands, waters)

the lexicalization of the plural form (obtaining a new lexical meaning ) – colours (flag), pains(effort)
quarters(abode, residence)
Uncountable nouns are subdivided into singular only (Singularia Tantum – Absolute Singular) and
plural only (Pluralia Tantum – Absolute Plural).

Sigularia Tantum – friendship, snow, milk, physics

Pluralia Tantum – scissors, clothes, measles, family, government

Number Concord (agreement)

1. Grammatical concord – singular noun goes with a singular verb

2. Notional concord – some nouns can take both singular and plural verbs e.g. family,
staff…

Theories on the category of case

Positional cases – nominative, vocative, dative, accusative

Prepositional cases – dative, genitive, instrumental

limited case – common, possessive

possessive postposition – no cases

blokh – common, genitive

The Verb and Its Grammatical Categories; the Categories of Tense, Voice and
Mood
The Verb and its Categories

1)structure: simple (work), derivative (enrich), compound (blackmail), composite/phrasal (take off)

2)semantics: actional (read), statal (exist)

3)transitive (take an object) and intransitive (don’t)

transitive: mono- (read a book); di- (give smb. smth.); prepositional transitive (take care of smb.)

4)aspective character: terminative (take — the action logically comes to an end), durative (live, read
— the action continues indefinitely)

5)function: syncategorematic — link verbs, auxiliary verbs; categorematic — notional verbs

6)regular, irregular

Lexical verbs — full main verbs (read)

Primary verbs — main or auxiliary verbs (be, have, do)

Modal verbs — auxiliaries (can, must)

Category of tense:

Past, present, future

Marker (past): -ed or inner inflections

Marker (future): shall/will

Barkhudarov: should/would + infinitive — double marking (past, future)

Sweet:

Simple and Compound

Simple: present, past, future

Compound: present perfect, past perfect, future perfect

Primary and Secondary

Primary — reference point is now: present, past, future, present perfect

Secondary — reference to any point except for now: past perfect, future perfect

Complete and Incomplete

Continuous tenses — incomplete

Present perfect — can be both (complete: I have lived my life; incomplete: I have lived here for
three years)

Past perfect — complete

Future perfect — complete

Category of Voice

Relation between a transitive verb and it’s subject and object.

Active and Passive (subject-inverted subject; object-inverted object)

1)reflexive voice: wash, shave, prepare. Active form, passive meaning. (I have washed *myself*.
He’s preparing *himself* for the exam)

2)reciprocal voice: auxiliaries — each other, one another. John and Dolly divorced *each other*.
The boys are quarreling *with one another*.

3)middle voice: the door opened (situation active, meaning passive)

4)causative voice (some linguists don’t accept it what a surprise): They persuaded John to go. —
they-subject, John-object (of the verb persuade) AND subject (of the verb to go).

Category of mood

Mood - a gram. category of the verb expressing modality.

1. indicative mood - fact of reality, the most developed system, zero and first conditionals

2. Imperative mood ( direct ) - a command or a request, the last developed, infinitive without to,
may be preceded by you ( you don’t dare ), analytical forms - let me open , emphatic form - do let’s
go, don’t let’s go

3. Subjunctive mood ( oblique) - non-fact.

Present subjunctive - archaic, refers tobte present or future, used in high prose, poetry, set
expressions ( God forbid, be it so ), I insisted she be ready - object clause, it is decided he come in
time - subject clause

Past subjunctive - unreal actions in present or future ( I wish, if only, as if) (it’s high time -
attributive clause ) to be has the form were.

We don’t use for wishes about ourselves. Second conditional.

Past perfect subjunctive - unreal actions in the past. Third conditional.

The Adjective
Adjective - quality of substances.

1. qualitative - qualities such as size, color, shape They:

Have degrees of comparison and typical suffixes, form adverb with -ly, are modified by adverbs
( very happy), are used as attributes and predicates

2. relative - qualities of a substance through its relation to another substance ( material, place, time)

They don’t have degrees of comparison, don’t form adverbs, are not modified by adverbs,are used
only as attributes, have typical suffixes ( woolen, communist, German, synthetic, analytical)

Grammatical category of degrees of comparison

1. basic form ( positive degree)

2. comparative degree - restrictive superiority

3. superlative degree - unrestricted superiority

Synthetic forms - -er, -est

Analytical form - more, most

Reverse comparison by Bloch - less, least

Elative most-construction

It is a most surprising day - absolute quality

According to Quirk postposition is obligatory for some adjectives - attorney general, postmaster
general, also with absent, present, involved, concerned)

Statives

asleep, awake, alive, ajar

Ilyish - desperate part of speech

Bloch - subclass of adjectives

Quirk - a-adjectives

Statives are not used in attributive preposition , they function as predicatives

They don’t have degrees of comparison, but sometimes form analytical forms ( he was one most
aware of the happenings)

Minor Syntax: Theories of Word-combinations (E. Kruisinga, O. Jespersen, L.

Bloomfield)
Syntax deals with the organization of speech. It studies speech as a unit
(major syntax) and word-combinations (minor syntax).

Kruisinga (tenas es inchacia) – theory of loose and close word-groups

Loose = independent of each other – e.g., ladies and gentlemen, pens and
pencils

Close = syntactically connected – e.g., bright light, stupid bitch

Jespersen (esi gidem inchacia) – theory of ranks, junction and nexus

Ranks = whether the words are defined or defining

Junction (no predication) and nexus (yes predication)

Junction – tasty pizza

Nexus – the pizza is tasty

Bloomfield – theory of endocentric and exocentric word-groups

Happy John = John (endocentric)

John is happy (exocentric)

Taxonomy = colligation = combinability = combining parts of speech into word

groups (n+adj)

Collocation = colligation+meaning (can’t say handsome woman)

Major Syntax: The Sentence; Simple, Compound and Complex Sentences

The sentence is the main unit of syntax

Sentences are built in accordance to grammatical rules and convey a thought

Predication = center of the sentence

Sentences are classified according to

the purpose of communication – declarative, imperative, interrogative, exclamatory

and

according to the structure – simple, composite (more than 1 predication). Composite sentences
are divided into compound (coordination) and complex (subordination)

subordination clauses

1. Subject clause
2. Object clause
3. Predicative clause
4. Subordinate clauses of time, place, result, purpose, manner…
One-member sentences

Blokh says both subject and predicate are present

Ilyish says these are two-member sentences

Other linguists say it’s a one-member sentence

Subject

1. Definite – any noun

2. Indefinite – pronouns (They say this salad is good)

The Principal and Secondary Parts of the Sentence

Subject — object/person whose action/property is expressed by predicate

1)Definite subject — can be defined (Sarinyan can’t write; The students are crying)

2)Indefinite — cannot be defined (We don’t like Sarinyan‘s writing; They say animals

deserve the best)

In English, the presence of subject is obligatory, it cannot be omitted.

Subject can be expressed by any word, word group or clause, noun, numeral, adjective,

infinitive, gerund, etc.

Predicate — action, state or property of the person/object denoted by the subject

According to meaning:

1)verbal — action (Women breed)

2)nominal — qualitative characteristic (Sarinyan is a boring lecturer)

According to structure:

1)simple — one verb, both lexical and grammatical meaning (finite verb: Sasha cries;

phraseological equivalent of a finite verb: Christina takes a nap)

2)compound — two elements: structural (grammatical meaning) and notional (lexical

meaning), e.g. Christina is a raccoon (is — structural, raccoon — notional)

COMPOUND NOMINAL — linking verb (copula, which expresses grammatical categories)

and a predicative expressed by a nominal element (lexical meaning).

Linking verbs:

•of being (be, look, feel, sound, appear, seem, taste, smell)

•of becoming (become, get, grow, turn)

•of remaining (remain, keep, stay)

He was angry. – He became angry. - He remained angry.

The predicative can be:

a) a noun – She is a disaster.

b) an adjective – The hedgehogs are funny.

c) a pronoun – The book is mine.

d) a numeral – He’ll be 20 soon.

e) infinitive - My plan is to cry tonight.

f) gerund – His hobby is gaslighting.

g) participle – He looked embarrassed.

COMPOUND VERBAL

a) compound verbal modal predicate (modal verb/expression + infinitive: Sarinyan needn’t

come; I am likely to lose it soon.)

b) compound verbal aspective predicate (finite verb with an aspective meaning and a verbal

(infinitive or gerund): She began/kept/stopped/etc. smiling; He would always ask dumb

questions; I used to eat doughnuts every evening)

c) group-verb predicate (a verb and a verbal: I didn’t mean to send this email; She tried to

smile; He sat playing backgammon)

Predicate Appositive (Sweet)

Double Predicate (Barabash)

That’s a combination of a verbal (finite verb, action performed by subject) and nominal

predicate (a word qualifying the subject)

With verbs of motion: He came home sick.

With verbs of position: She sat motionless.

When the pronoun it as a subject represents a living being or a thing, it’s notional subject
(The door opened. It was opened by a young man.)

In other cases:

a) the impersonal it (It rains; It’s 5 o’clock)

b) the introductory or anticipatory it (It’s no use trying to understand Kazaryan; It was funny

to watch the first-graders fight)

c) the emphatic it (clefting) (It was me who made the conversation awkward)

Introductory (anticipatory) there

Structural subject, introduces the actual subject: There’s a doughnut missing from the box.

Attribute modifies a noun or a pronoun: The exact reason why I’m mad is Sarinyan.

Object modifies a verb.

Direct object: smb or smth directly affected by the action.

She wrote a letter.

Indirect object: a living being to whom the action is directed.

She gives me anxiety.

Prepositional indirect object:

He looked at her in surprise.

I gave the letter to her.

Adverbial modifier (inqn a vor ka): modifies a verb, sometimes an adjective or another

adverb.

a) time and frequency:

I played chess yesterday.

b) place and direction: I dance in my room. Nelly goes to Egypt.

c) cause and reason: She asked out of courtesy.

d) purpose: He came to have fun.

e) result: John was too happy to listen to him.

f) condition: In case of your absence I will eat your doughnuts.

g) concession: The day was fine, though cold. Despite being a Harry Styles fan, she’s a

decent person.

h) degree and measure: I like her very much.

i) attendant circumstances: He went to bed without preparing for the exam.

Transformational Generative Grammar

Developed by Chomsky

Each sentence has a deep structure and surface structure

Kernel = simple declarative active sentence – I found the boy. He was in the library. – 2 kernels

Visiting relatives can be a nuisance vs Visiting relatives can be a nuisance – same surface
different deep structure (fuck me)

TG brings out formations the phrasemic level cannot. The kernel sentence helps analyze the same
word combinations from different aspects.

The shooting of the hunters = 2 kernel sentences.

1. The hunters shoot

2. They shoot the hunters
Flying planes can be dangerous = trnox samalyotnery vs samalyot trnely

History of English

1. The main periods of the English language

Old English – 400-1100 – period of full endings and inflections, unstressed endings

Middle English – 1100-1500 – reduced inflections (instead came auxiliaries and

prepositions), leveled endings, e as an ending,

Modern English – 1500-now – even less inflections, progress in culture and education,
conquests, borrowings (mostly French)

2. The Anglo-Saxon Conquest of Britain

6-3c BC Celts spread across Europe and Britain. Scotts settled in Ireland. Britannic Celts
took most of the island thus the name Britain. Gaelic (aka Irish) also comes from Celtic
tribes

Roman conquest – 43AD Emperor Claudius colonized Celts and Britain. Due to
romanization the main language was Latin but Celtic was also used. The use of Latin
began to decline in 410 when Roman troops were withdrawn from the island.

3. The Norman Conquest and its effect on the linguistic situation

1066 – Norman conquest. French (aka Anglo-Norman) was the language of court,
church, nobles, literature, and most importantly clowns. Teaching was conducted in
French, books were translated. In 13-14th c. English was exposed to a new wave of
 French. ME borrowed A LOT of words from Parisian French, native words were
replaced by French equivalents.

4. Progress of culture. Introduction of printing

Unification of the country and the progress of culture – 13th c. Growing economics,
decaying feudalism

Printing was introduced by a German guy Gutenberg. Caxton was the first printer of
English books. First Englihs book (1475)– Caxton’s translation of Troy. Soon London was
reading c:
Caxton spelling became normalized because the manuscripts had chaotic spelling.

5. Written records in Late Middle English. The age of Chaucer

Chaucer (1340-1400) the greatest writer of all times, founder of literary language and
ME. Wrote in mixed London dialect which became the basis of national literary
language. His greatest work is the unfinished collection of 24 stories Canterbury Tales,
about his experience and other pilgrims.