8
SYNTACTIC STYLISTIC DEVICES SYNTACTIC STYLISTIC DEVICES
are
based on a peculiar
place of the word or
phrase in the utterance
(text, sentence, etc).This
special place creates
emphasis irrespective of the lexical
meaning of the
words used. Categories:
syntactic stylistic devises based on:
SDD: based on ABSENCE OF
LOGICALLY REQUIRED ELEMENTS OF SPEECH
ELLIPSISELLIPSIS or ELLIPTICAL
SENTENCES means leaving out one or
both principle
members of the
sentence that is the
subject or predicate.
NT: Where is the man I’m
going to marry?
- Out in the
garden . (no
subject)
What is he doing out
there ?
- Annoying
father .
Here , in the
dialogue ,
ellipsis creates the colloquial
tone of the utterance. It also
renders realistically the way the
characters speak . The elliptical
sentences convoy/
render carelessness, familiarity, harshness. It
makes the utterance tens and emotional or helps to
stress most
important elements. NT: I
went to
Oxford , as one
goes to exile; she
to London.
APOSIOPESIS (
Greek - silence) it is called break-in-the-
narrative .
APOSIOPESIS is an unfinished
sentence where the speaker or
writer suddenly stops in the
middle , as
if unable or unwilling to proceed. A indicates strong
emotions ,
paralyzing the speaker or his
desire to conceal
part of information.
NT: she must leave – or better yet – drown
herself – make
away with herself at some way – or –
The speaker’s strong
emotions
therefore inability to finish. NT: And it was so unlikely
that she had
stolen his wallet that… well.
NOMINATIVE
SENTENCESNOMINATIVE SENTENCES are just
a
noun -sentence, containing a noun or a nominal-noun-phrase sentence.
NOMINATIVE SENTENCES strengthen the
dynamic nature of the narrative.
NT: London.
Parks . Horse rides. Noisy streets. Noisy
traffic .
Policeman.
Such sentences evoke a more or
less isolated
idea of an object
without any
connection with
other objects.
These sentences appeal to reader’s imagination, and thus
makes the reader
active .
ASYNDETONASYNDETON means intentional
omission of
conjunctions between parts of a sentence or between
sentences, disregarding norms of the
literary language . ASYNDETON is
used mostly to describe an energetic (objectic?)
activities us to
show exession (succession) of
minute immediately
following each of
the
actions . Opening the story of chapter, A helps to give a laconic
… and at the
same time detailed information into the
action proper .
NT: The
motion of the
camp at
night was
everywhere . People
sang . People cried. People fought.
People loved. People
hated . Some were sad.
Others gay. Others with
friends . Others lonely. NT: He yawned, put on his
shirt , slammed the
door , patted the dog, opened the mailbox, yawned, went back,
wound the
clock , yawned.
APOKOINU CONSTRUCTION APOKOINU CONSTRUCTIONS
mean a
combination of two
clauses into one at the expense of omitting the
connecting world (
usually who or that). This is regarded bad
grammar and this is
characteristic of
irregular oral speech (dialogue). NT: I
am the
first one saw her.
The main
effect is to suggest
the careless or uneducated nature of somebody’s speech.
NT: It was I was a father to
you.
NT: It is your unfairness
disgusts me.
NT: There is no one enjoys
good food
than he does.
THE GAP-SENTENCE LINK THE GAP-SENTENCE LINK is
seemingly illogical construction of a sentence that connects its
parts in such a way that the reader
himself must reconstruct the gap
between
them . The
device is usually introduced by
dots and followed
by the conjunction “and” or ”but”.
The
function is to give
subjective evaluation of facts to introduce an effect or some
cause .
NT: It was not
Cape town,
where people only frowned when they saw a
black boy and a white girl…
but. (
here he loved her)
SSD-s that are based on
REDUNDANCY OF ELEMENTS OF SPEECH are:(Here belong devices based on
repetition)
FRAMINGFRAMING means repeating the
same word, phrase or sentence at the
beginning and at the end of a
sentence or passage.In this way the repeated
unit is emphasised.
NT: the
street , so
soft and
sunny . Here he
comes . She smiles and stretches out her
hands .
ANADIPLOSISANADIPLOSIS means repeating a
word or phrase at the end of the
clause or sentence and at the
beginning of the next one. NT: Such was life. Life without hope. NT:
Three fishers went sailing out in the
West . Out in the West, as the
sun went down.
ANAPHORAANAPHORA means repeating a
world, phrase or sentence at the beginning of several clauses or
sentences in succession (
happening one after
another ). NT: Heroes
come and go. Heroes eat and
drink . Heroes
kiss women and enjoy their
lives . NT: Supposing he comes; supposing the
darkness lits; supposing
it is possible.
EPIPHORAEPIPHORA means repeating a
word, phase or sentence at the end of clause, sentence or passages.
NT: She
likes the bottle. She is
found of the bottle. She will
never give up the bottle. NT: I
know he run away from the
battle . He was an
ordinary human being who didn’t want to
kill , so he run away from
the battle.
POLYSYNDETONPOLYSYNDETON means intentional
repetition of a conjunction in
close succession in
order to
slow down
the utterance (becomes monotonous). The two conjunctions are normally
“and” which suggest energetic activity or the conjunction “or”
stresses equal
importance any numerated things listed. NT: And the
coachman, and the
horses rattled and jangled and whipped and cursed
and swore and tumbled on together.NT: ?
TAUTOLOGYTAUTOLOGY is such a
construction that makes information redundant and this is
objectionable in literary speech.
GRAMMATICAL TAUTOLOGY
means that in one sentence a
double subject or a double predicate or
both are used. NT: My
brother , he
slept 40 days, without waking up.
NT: I
know
what the like of you are, I
do.
Such
cases occur mainly in the dialogue and they suggest that the
personages carelessness or not too educated speech. This way or other
those constructions
sound colloquial.
LEXICAL TAUTOLOGY
means repeating absolutely the same information. NT: She always
sleeps
late , she never wakes up
early . NT: He is leaving now, I mean
he is going. In
fiction this characterises the speaker negatively.
SSD-s that are based on UNUSUAL POSITION OF WORDS AND PHRASES .INVERSIONINVERSION is emotional and
expressive colouring may be conveyed by special word order. The
violation of the accepted rules of word order is called inversion.
COMPLETE INVERSION
means the predicate or part of it comes
before the subject and thus
the misplaced part is emphasised. NT: Beautiful those days were.
(normal: those days were beautiful) NT:
Unhappy went he. NT:
Satisfied he looked. NT: Go I must.
PARTIAL INVERSION
is when the
direct object comes first in the sentence.
NT: His love
letters I
returned to the detective. The
adjective or several adjectives come
after the noun they
modify (gives a solem and
little archaic
touch ).
NT: I saw the first
spring flowers,
cold and shy and wintry. NT: In
some
places there are
yellow tulips, slender, spicky and
Chinese -looking.
POOLELI LK 33
DETACHMENTDETACHMENT means a syntactic
separation of a word or phrase from the
rest of the sentence to
emphasise the isolated part. Isolation is signalled by punctuation
(comma, dot,
dash , semicolon,
full stop) that are not actually needed
according to rules of punctuation. The effect is strongest when the
full stop is used. NT: I saw him. In his car. NT: I have to break you
for
money –
daily . NT: They were heard
again , immediately.
SSD-s that are based on
SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES BEYOND ON SENTENCEThe
term is not too adequate
(accurate) because the devices discussed in this group may occur
within on sentence as well.
PARALLELISM Syntactic PARALLELISM means
repeating the same order of words within sentence or sentences to add
to the rhythmical
features of the text. NT: In the garden, under the
table, behind the car. NT:
Came fast ,
spoke slowly, wrote carelessly.
Complete parallelism means absolute
identity of several structures.
NT:
Nobody thinks; nobody
cares ; nobody bothers.
Partial parallelism means that
the pattern is repeated but some deviations are
present .
NT: Nobody thinks, nobody
gives a damn, nobody bothers
nowadays .
ANTITHESISANTITHESIS means the
opposition or the clash of two strongly contrasted
ideas combined
with syntactic parallels.
Contrast is often created by antonyms. NT:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to
plant , and a time to
pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a
time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a
time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
NT: I am the
poet of the
body and the poet of the sole.
NT: I was his family’s
devoted
friend , and she was my family’s
secret enemy.
CHIASMUSSyntactic CHIASMUS (reversed
parallelism) means that the word order of one sentence is inverted
compared to that of the other sentence or clause. NT: Up went the
curtain , the curtain went up.Lexical chiasmus means that both parts
of the
parallel construction have the normal word order and
practically the same words are repeated. NT: I know the word, and the
word knows me.
CLIMAXCLIMAX means the arrangement
of the words and phrases in such a way that their meaning becomes
stronger in each
case and reaches the
peak of intensity in the end.
NT: It was a mistake, a blunder, a lunacy. (creates gradation) NT: He
wanted to weep, to vomit, to die.
There is also a
logical climax
– the way the
author sees the things
happened .
The function of climax is to
show the significance of things as the author sees them.
ANTICLIMAXANTICLIMAX means a comic,
satiric effect by arranging sentences in such a way that the aroused
expectations are disappointed. (paradoxes are often based on
anticlimax).
NT: Women have a wonderful
instinct of things. They can discover everything – except the
obvious. NT: I know two things about the horses. And on of them is
rather coarse .
SUSPENSESUSPENSE means
holding the
reader in a
tense anticipation. This is achieved by special
construction of the sentence in which the main part of information
comes at the end of the sentence. The sentence must be long. NT: The
day on which I take the happiest and
best step of my life – the day
in which I
shall be man, more enviable than any other man in the
world – the day on which I give bleek house its little mistress –
shall be next
month .
Syntactic structures used
in a new functionRhetoric quest
– requires no
answer , used to emphasise the point. In public speech
it expresses sarcasm. In college speech it expresses irony, mostly,
because the answer is
clear . The reader is made active. E.g. who can
stop me (nobody). Is it
fair to treat him like this (no).
Exclamation
– this a sentence used as an interjection to
express a sudden
emotion. E.g. she was so fantastic! How fantastic the
paper looked!
Graphical expressive means
Punctuation
marks – the
outward
shape of the
printed page is very important. The author is
conscious of various
types of
prints and their interrelation. The
division of
prose into paragraphs (the capital letters,
italics , and
punctuation marks). Gr.means are vital in order to
pass over the
reader, those features that in oral speech are rendered by prosodic
elements – stress, tone of the
voice , pauses, the
length , sound,
etc.
Punctuation marks take up a
prominent place
among gr.means. It points out many elemnts –
emotional pauses, irony. It also senders the
authors '
attitude towards what he
says and expresses emotional actions and reflects the
rhythmic organization of the text. E.g. and then she saw – a
ghost .
Expressive function, see detachment. Stylistic function of full stop
may be
different .
Over stopping
– the full stop is used very frequently separating words or phrases
that normally don’t form a sentence. E.g. I wouldn’t call her
beautiful. Or
clever . Because she is boring. And dull. In such cases
over stopping creates a peculiar
rhythm .
Under
stopping
– means too few full stops, long sentences. It reflects the dynamic
qualities of the text. These 2 devices are favoured by modernist
writers T.S. Eliot and
Faulkner . In Eliots' “….
march ” the march
of soldiers is written by very short sentences. The
inferior monologue of
Molly Bloom in “
Ulysses ” (40 pg without a
single punctuation mark) to show the flow of human thoughts. The indented
line also belongs to punctuation marks. In
scientific prose the
division into paragraphs is conditioned by the logical treatment of
the problems. New paragraph developing new ideas. In fiction, this
principle hardly
works . If the writer presents a long description as
one paragraph, it means that he attaches equal importance to every
sentence. If separate sentence is patterned as one paragraph it
stands out meaningfully, emotionally. E.g.
She hated Rosemary
Barton . If
thoughts
could kill, she would have
killed her.
But thoughts do not kill –
Thoughts are not enough….
From the rhythmical point, the
alteration of long and short paragraphs adds to the rhythmical effect
on the text. Long paragraphs create a monotonous rhythmic effect. A
sequence of short or very short paragraphs creates an abrupt rhythm.
The most prominent punctuation
marks are exclamation marks and question marks. Their frequent use in
the text speaks of emotionality. E.g.
Winter ! So cold! Why
snow ? The
exclamation mark is often used to
offer the sentences that are not
exclamatory in form. In such cases it expresses the
specific , mostly
ironic attitude or indignation. E.g. a
truth , a
faith , a generation
of men goes – and is
forgotten , and it doesn’t matter!
Sentences that are
interrogative in structure mat end with exclamation m to express
strong
surprise of distrust. E.g. a, does she think of me so often!
The dash and dots (
suspension marks) create emotional pauses to mark
indecision, uncertainty, nervousness. E.g. Well, he is a..he is a
kind of acquaintance. In dialogue the dash and dots are used to
render the speech realistically. To show that speakers don’t
listen one another.
Quotation mark
–
serve to single out either the speech of characters or their
thoughts that remain unuttered. Words or phrases may be used with
quot marks to imply that they belong to other characters and the
author himself feels ironic about them. Sometimes quot marks are used
to show that words are used in some specific or narrower meaning.
Capital letters
– are involved in personification and antonomasia. Words may
contain only capital letters for emphatic purposes. E.g. WILL YOU BE
QUIET ! He shouted. It is a
tradition to
begin every poetic line with
a capital letter. It has been a tradition in every language but
nowadays it is chopped either
partly or altogether to create intimacy
with the reader.
Even in headings small letters
tend to be used. E.g.
under
milk wood (by
dylan thomas ). The arrangement of lines on a page
has become very significant in
poetry . The so called
figure poems have
appeared . There are poems having shape of a figure (
star , fly)
depending on a
context .
Multiplication
– of letters, that is, letters are
doubled to reflect the way they
are pronounced. E.g. laaaaarge, ruuuuuuin.
Hyphenation
– may
split up a word into syllables or even letters, thus,
emphesizing this very word. E.g. I des-pise him!
Italics – show that words
are important in this very context or words are used in some special,
ironic meaning. It is a tradition to italicize
foreign words.
Graphical stylistic devicesGraphon
– is distorted spelling of a word. It renders
phonetic peculiarities of
pronunciation and
occurs in prose
only and not in authors´ narrative but dialogue. I suggest blurred,
coherent or careless pronunciation caused by temporary features
(young age, ignorance of the discussed topic) or by
permanent outs
(
social , territorial, educational)
Permanent graphon
– used by many writers. E.g. fella, summat (somewhat), tomorra,
gimme, dunno, helleva. Gr is wildly used by modern writers in England
and by negro and
military writers in America.
Occasional
graphon
-
individual , belongs to particular author and is hardly used ny any
other. E.g. We lov ar ticher, howwid, she
gave permissen for the
operashun.
Suggests
something about the
speaker!! It is
interesting to
note that violated spelling
still result in the
correct pronunciation of the word. We don’t produce
it in translation. Makes the speech colloquial.
Stylistic colouring of
words, stylistic classification of English vocabulary Stylistically
neutral words –
are those that are used in any style of language, are natural in any
circumstances. E.g. man, street, tomato. In contrast to those, there
existx a nr of words that possess
fixed stylistic colouring or
connotation. Standing
alone , they are associated with certain style
of language and
felt as elements of this style.
Homicide is literary
word and its synonym murder is neutral. Main belongs to poetic
vocabulary and its synonym
ocean is neutral. Capital C in Chinese is
colloquial and Chinese is neutral. Stylistic colouring doesn’t
depend on a context. It is conditioned by the existence of
corresponding neutral words and becomes clear only in
comparison with
them. Style colouring words lend their colouring to the
whole utterance. It is sometimes sufficient to have 2-3 words in a
paragraph to make the
latter either poetic or solemn etc depending on
the nature of those 2-3 words.
Common literary vocabularyAre not confined to any sphere
of
usage . Here mainly belong borrowed words. E.g.
Yearly-annual, hint-allusion,
to see-to behold,
talk -
converse , true-authentic.
The man
fell -the individual
was precipitated, hard
study made him sleepy-indefatigable pursuit of
knowledge endowed somnolence in him.
Sometimes lit words are used
for the sake of humour. Especially when they describe very trivial
actions.
Special literary vocabularyTerms – belong to scientific
discourse. They are indispensible for the
development of
science .
E.g.
malaria (med),
blood vessel,
spinal cord; linguistics –
semantics, syntax, chiasmus.
Outside this direct application the
function of the terms
changes . In fiction terms may be used to
recreate a true-to-life atmosphere of some profession. E.g.
Arthur Hailey “The
Final Diagnosis”, “The
Airport ”. Secondly to
suggest characters educational
status , social backround. To create
irony when describing the
interest and
hobbies of common people.
Aldington “
Death of a hero” describes uses of psychology terms.
Lastly, for the sake of humour when terms are used instead of
everyday words.
Foreign words and barbarismBarbarisms
are words from other
languages borrowed into
English but no
assimilated to the full extent.
However , registered in dictionaries.
E.g. vacuum, bizarre, stiletto
Foreign words and phrases
– are facts of other languages. They don’t belong into English.
E.g.
mein Gott ! Avanti (go
ahead ),
soleil (sun),
kummel (vodka).
Appear in italics.
The function: 1. to supply
local colour writer is describing. E.g.
spain and used
Spanish . 2.
suggest persons
nationality 3. to suggest a social status 4. desire
to be
above the
average 5. to sften the utterance by using less
familiar foreign words.
Archaic
words
– words no longer used in everyday
conversation are felt outdated
and remind bygone
times . E.g. to deem,
watt (to know), time piece
(clock), perchance (
perhaps ) ear (before).
Stylistic point of view. We
should
keep apart natural and deliberate use of archaic words, thus,
in
Shakespeare many words are archaic today but where ordinary words
at that time. (natural words). Contemporary writers and speakers use
these words deliberately.
Function: 1. recreate
truthfully the atmosphere of a certain
period (historical novels). 2.
to parody historical novels (in this case archaic words are used
extremely often). 3. to stress the characteristic toutchness of the
past. E.g.
Dickens “The Old
curiosity shop”. 4. for the sake of
humour when used in everyday speech.
In poetry archaic words are
often used for their more elevated colouring and not for the sake of
historical background. In
official documents some archaic words are
still used, however the tendency is that to
avoid them. E.g. hereby,
hereinafter.
Poetic
diction
– words traditionally used in poetry and partly they overlap with
archaic words. E.g. hapless (unhappy), naught (nothing), hearken (to
hear ). Function – to uphold
lofty poetic colouring (if used in
poetry). If used in trivial conversation the effect is irony,
satire ,
humour.
Common colloquial
vocabularyFamiliar words that occur
everyday more intimate talk and as a
rule not used in literary
speech. To
hurt -to kick around, clever-
smart , friend-buddy, pal,
die-go west.
Interjections. E.g. Jee!
Goshh!
Neutral words used
metaphorically - Half -
baked (silly), juicy (good), lamb (
dear )
Diminutive
forms
– fatty (fat), sweety, piggy,
Marge Special
forms
of
address
– old
thing !
Sweet heart ! Honey!
Colloquial
abbreviation
– op (
operation ), sis, sec
Intensifiers
or
adverbs
– result is trite oxymoron (very often) e.g. horribly smart,
terribly sweet.
Words
with
a
wide
range
of
application
– 1. thing- may
stand for
anything 2.stuff 3. job
Ph. Verbs
– make out (
understand ), give in (surrender).
Nouns converted from
ph v e.g. break through, getaway.
Time fillers
– you see! I mean.. eaaa..you know..
Special colloquial
vocabularySlang – colourful words and
expressions belonging to low colloquial speech. Coined and used by
people to show that they are “one of the
gang ”. Used by many
social groups. Reason the appearance of slang
lies in the speakers
desire to be
original , witty and sometimes a protest against the
standards. If such a word is used widely it seizes to be slang and
becomes common or neutral word. E.g. skyscraper, taxi, piano,
photo ,
pub. The history of slang is short. The word boose has been slang
word even
since it was coined at the 16th
century . Slang is
formed by word building means (see
lexicology ) as
well as
figures of speech. E.g.
upper -
storey (head), bread (money).
Metonymy is used – shirtwoman. Hyperbole – killing –
astonishing. Irony – clear as mud.
In slang a word is sometimes
spelt backwards. Then it is calles backslang e.g. rum-mur, top o reeb
– pot o
beer , yob-boy. There is also so called rhythmical slang. It
comes from cockney e.g apples and
pairs standing for stairs, trouble
and strife –
wife . Slang is noted for the great number of synonyms.
True for things discussed often.
Being
drunk – all wet,
pie
eyed , screwed, polished, zig-zag.
Excellent
– good, elegant, meaty, wicked, tops. Money – beans,
bacon ,
berries,
grass , bullets.
Slang is devided into general
slang – used in all fields of life and special slang is used in
certain spheres – army,
university , stock
exchange . This kind of
slang is called
JargonMilitary – glasshouse
(
prison ), olds wets ( old
soldier ),
picture show (battle)
University – to fail (
stump ,
to ship, to hit the
ceiling ).
Spikker –
crib , pony, hog
Exam –
river ,
screw The function of slang and
jargon in the authors narrative is to characterize an object or
person emotionally often by ridiculing. Slang in the direct speech is
used to suggest that the speaker is excited or wishes to sound funny
or appeal to others.
Cant
– is the language of underworld –
criminals , tramps. It is a
secret language in which the important words are disguised for the
outsider not to understand. Used in special meaning e.g. mill
(prison), plant (theft), jack (money). There are words that occur in
this style only e.g. yegg (criminal), shiv (knife).
Vulgar
words
– expressions and words to be widely used e.g. fuck,
dick , ass
Lexical words
usually replaced by euphemisms or by scientific words. The very
object or
reference is considered vulgar e.g. penis-dick,
urinate-
piss . Stylistic
vulgarism don’t express vulgar objects yet,
they are inappropriate because they have
negative colouring e.g.
smeller-nose, plant-bury, flathead-
fool Curses
– damn! Bloody!
Shortened
forms
– SOB (son of the
bitch )
In the direct speech they
serve as a means of speech,
lack of education, social status. If used
in authors’ speech the effect is humour, irony.
Professional words
– words coined and used by professional groups – docs, teachers,
real estate . They stand for objects typical of
given trade or
occupation . Such words are easily understood, not secret and used to
make
communication easier – less official. Very often long words
are shortened in hunting-
buff (buffalo); lab (
laboratory ); fresher –
first
year student , lit-
literature .
Dialectic words – words used
locally so they characterize a person as belonging to a certain
geographical area, also education and breeding may be suggested. Some
dialectal words have become common colloquial e.g. lad-man,
lassy-lady. In some dialects thou (sina),
tell (
gossip ),
strike a
daisy (exclamation meaning), addle (to
earn ).
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