The editorial.

Its function is to influence the reader by giving an interpretation of certain facts. Editorials comment on the political and other events of the day. Their purpose is to give the editor’s opinion and interpretation of the news published and suggest to the reader that it is the correct one.

In addition to vocabulary typical of brief news items, writers of editorials make an extensive use of emotionally coloured vocabulary (‘The long-suffering British housewife needs a bottomless purse to cope with this scale of inflation’-“Daily Mirror”). The language of editorial articles is characterized by a combination of different strata of vocabulary, which enhances the emotional effect. Alongside political words and expressions, terms, clichés and abbreviations one can find colloquial words and expressions, slang and professionalisms. Emotional colouring in editorial articles is achieved with the help of various stylistic devices, the use of which is largely traditional.

Yet, the role of expressive language means and stylistic devices in the editorial should not be over-estimated. They stand out against the essentially neutral background. Broadly speaking, tradition reigns supreme in the language of newspapers. Original forms of expression and fresh genuine stylistic means are comparatively rare in newspaper articles, editorial included.

 

1. 5. Scientific Prose Style.

The language of science is governed by the aim of the functional style of scientific prose, which is to prove a hypothesis, to create new concepts, to disclose the internal laws of existence, development, relations between different phenomena, etc. the language means used, therefore, tend to be objective, precise, unemotional, devoid of any individuality; there is a striving for the most generalized form of expression.

1. The first and most noticeable feature of this style is the logical sequence of utterances with clear indication of their interrelations and interdependence. It will not be exaggeration to say that in no other functional style we find such a developed and varied system of connectives as in scientific prose.
2. The second equally important feature of this style is the use of terms specific to each given branch of science. Due to the rapid dissemination of scientific and technical ideas, we may observe the process of ‘de-terminization’, that is, some scientific and technical terms begin to circulate outside the narrow field they belong to and eventually begin to develop new meanings. But the overwhelming majority of terms do not undergo this process and remain the property of scientific prose. There they are born, may develop new terminological meanings, and there they die. No other field of human activity is so prolific in coining new words as science is. The necessity to penetrate deeper into the essence of things and phenomena gives rise to new concepts, which require new words to name them. Further, the general vocabulary employed in scientific prose bears its direct referential meaning, that is, words used in scientific prose will always tend to be used in their primary logical meaning. Nor will there be any words with contextual meaning. Even the possibility of ambiguity is avoided. Furthermore, terms are coined so as to be self-explanatory to the greatest possible degree. But neutral and common literary words used in scientific prose will be explained, even it their meaning is only slightly modified. In modern scientific prose an interesting phenomenon arises – the exchange of terms between various branches of science. Self-sufficiency in any branch of science is now a thing of the past. The exchange of terminology may be regarded as a neutral outcome of collaboration of specialists. Mathematics has priority in this respect. Mathematical terms have left their own domain and travel freely in other sciences, including linguistics.
3. 3. A third characteristic feature of scientific style is sentence – patterns. They are of 3 types: postulatory, argumentative and formulative. A hypothesis must be based on facts already known. Therefore, every piece of scientific prose will begin with postulatory pronouncements which are taken as self-evident and needing no proof. The writer’s own ideas are shaped in formulae, arguments, etc., that is, in sentences giving reasons for further conclusions. The definition sentence –pattern is the sentence which sums up the facts; it is generally a kind of clincher sentence.
4. 4. A fourth observable feature of the style of modern scientific prose is the use of quotations and references. They sometimes occupy as much as half a page. They also have a definite compositional pattern, namely, the name of the writer referred to, the title of the work quoted, the publishing house, the place and year it was published, and the page of the excerpt quoted or referred to.
5. 5. A fifth feature of the style under discussion is the frequent use of foot-notes, not of the reference kind, but digressive in character. This is in full accord with the requirement of the style, which is logical coherence of ideas expressed.
6. 6. The impersonality of scientific writings can also be considered a typical feature of this style. It is mainly revealed in the frequent use of passive constructions and impersonal scientific ‘we’ followed by the verbs suppose, assume, conclude, infer, point out, etc.

 

1. 6. The Style of Official Documents.

There is one more style of language within the field of standard literary English which has become singled out – the style of official documents, or ‘officialese’. It can in its turn be divided into the language of business documents, the language of legal documents, the language of diplomacy, and the language of military documents. But we shall examine the peculiarities of the style in the whole, without going into details and peculiarities of every substyle. This style has a definite communicative aim and, accordingly, its own system of interrelated language and stylistic means.

The main aim of this type of communication is to state the conditions binding two parties in an undertaking. These parties may be: the state and the citizen, or citizen and the citizen; a society and its members; two or more enterprises or bodies; two or more governments; a person in authority and a subordinate; a board or presidium and an assembly or general meeting, etc. the aim of communication in this style of language is to reach agreement between two contracting parties.

This most general function of the style of official documents predetermines the peculiarities of the style. The most essential feature of it is a special system of clichés, terms and set expressions by which each substyle can easily be recognized, for example: I beg to inform you, I second the motion, provisional agenda, the above-mentioned, hereinafter named, on behalf of, Dear Sir, your obedient servant.

Besides the special nomenclature characteristic of each variety of the style, there is a feature common to all of them – the use of abbreviations, conventional symbols and contractions, for example: MP – Member of Parliament; gvt – government; HMS – Her Majesty’s Steamship; $, &, £, §, rsvp, PTO – Please Turn Over; e.g. – for example. There are so many of them that there are special addendas in dictionaries to decode them.

Another feature of the style is the use of words in their logical dictionary meaning. Just as in the other matter-of-fact style, there is no room for contextual meanings or for any kind of simultaneous realization of two meanings.

Words with emotive meaning are not to be found in official documents either.

As in all other functional styles, the distinctive properties appear as a system.

The syntactical pattern of the style is as significant as the vocabulary, though not so immediately apparent. The most noticeable are the compositional patterns of the variants of this style. Thus, business letters have a definite compositional pattern, namely, the heading giving the address of the writer, the date, the name of the addressee and his address. Then come the address (either by name or impersonal), the theme of the letter, the main information itself, the final greeting, the signature, and then follow different appendixes if there are any.

It is also the established custom to divide separate utterances by numbers, maintaining, however, the principle of dependence of all the statements on the main part of the utterance. In no other style of language will such an arrangement of utterance be found.

As is seen from the different samples above, the over-all code of the official style falls into a system of subcodes, each characterized by its own variety of syntactical arrangements. But the integrating features of all these subcodes remain the following:

1. conventionality of expression;
2. absence of any emotiveness;
3. the encoded character of language symbols;
4. a general syntactical mode of combining several pronouncements into the sentence.

 

Language means of the realization of a style.

Plan.

1. Introduction. Language, speech and text. Relations between stylistic units. Stylistic colouring and stylistic neutrality.
2. Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices:

2.1. graphons;

2.2. scanning;

2.3. onomatopoeia;

2.4. alliteration (assonance);

2.5. rhyme;

2.6. rhythm.

1. Lexical expressive means and stylistic devices:

3.1. interaction of primary dictionary and contextually imposed meanings:

3.1.1.metaphor;

3.1.2. metonymy;

3.1.3.irony.

3.2. interaction of primary and derivative logical meaning:

3.2.1.zeugma;

3.2.2. pun.

3.3. interaction of logical and emotive meanings:

3.3.1. Interjections and exclamatory words;

3.3.2. epithets;

3.3.3. oxymoron;

3.4. interaction of logical and nominal meanings (antonomasia);

3.5. intensification of a certain feature of a thing or phenomenon:

3.5.1. simile;

3.5.2. periphrasis;

3.5.3. euphemism;

3.5.4. hyperbole\meiosis.

3.6. peculiar use of expressions:

3.6.1. clichés;

3.6.2. proverbs and sayings;

3.6.3. epigrams;

3.6.4. quotations;

3.6.5. allusions.

4. Morphological expressive means

5. Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices:

5.1. compositional patterns of syntactical arrangement:

5.1.1. inversion;

5.1.2. detached constructions;

5.1.3. parallel constructions;

5.1.4. chiasmus;

5.1.5. repetition;

5.1.6. enumeration;

5.1.7. suspense;

5.1.8. climax;

5.1.9. antithesis.

5.2. particular ways of linkage:

5.2.1. asyndeton;

5.2.2. polysyndeton;

5.2.3. the gap-sentence link.

5.3. particular use of colloquial constructions:

5.3.1. ellipsis;

5.3.2. aposiopesis (break-in-the-narrative);

5.3.3. question-in-the-narrative;

5.3.4. represented speech;

5.4. stylistic use of structural meaning:

5.4.1. rhetorical questions;

5.4.2. litotes.

1. Introduction. Language, speech and text. Relations between stylistic units. Stylistic colouring and stylistic neutrality.

 

Language is a system of mental associations of elementary and complex signs (sounds, morphemes, words, word combinations, utterances, combinations of utterances) with our mental picture of objective reality, a psychological phenomenon of social significance, that exists in individual minds, but serves the purpose of social intercourse through speech.

Speech is a momentary, fleeting psycho-physiological action, a process of sending acoustic signals (messages), perceptible to anyone within hearing.

Speech realizes itself in texts – written or oral utterances of various length.

There are different types of texts, and one and the same idea can be expressed in different ways. For example, from the informational point of view the sentences ‘The old man died.’, ‘The gentleman well advanced in years attained the termination of his terrestrial existence.’ and ‘The ole bean he kicked the bucket.’ are just the same, though their form is quite different.

The phenomenon that differentiates a group of homogeneous texts from all other groups is called style.

Thus, style is the peculiarity, the set of specific features of a text type or of a concrete text that differentiates a group of homogeneous texts from other groups.

Within the text we can distinguish 3 classes of linguistic units:

1. Non-specific or neutral.
2. Relatively specific.
3. Absolutely specific.

As for non-specific units, you can meet them in any text, irrespective of its style. They are used very frequently; there are no social limitations as to their use; every English-speaking child understands and uses them. That’s why they do not define the style of the text. As an example of such units you can take prepositions, pronouns, verbs that mean the main actions, basic nouns, etc. These words are normal to all the styles or stylistically neutral.

Taking, however, the words commencement, statement, differentiation, we observe that they are hardly ever used in everyday communication; they are unfamiliar to a child or an illiterate person. They are specific, but only relatively so.

Let’s take the word operation as an example. It arouses a more or less definite association with the cultivated sphere of social intercourse; it is somewhat a bookish word, very rare in the speech of uncultured people. You cannot as well meet it in slang or in low colloquial speech. Thus, it is specific; but its specificity is relative, not absolute, because the word is used in several spheres: in medicine, criminology, mathematics, baking, military matters. Hence, we deal here with a relatively specificunit.

By absolutely specific units we mean those which belong to one style only. Thus, the word pulmonology is absolutely specific to medical science and practice, words sylvan and morn – to poetic diction; words absolutely specific to the colloquial sublanguage are chap, daddy, gee, etc.

Relatively specific and specific words are not neutral; they define the style of the text they are used in.

Summing up everything mentioned above we can say, that style is a deviation from the lingual norm (pre-established and conventionally accepted parameters), if norm means neutrality.

Stylistics deals with the term functional style as main characteristics of the text. A functional style of language is a system of interrelated language means which serves a definite aim in communication.

In the English literary standard we distinguish the following major functional styles:

• The Belles-Lettres Style.
• Publicistic Style.
• Newspaper Style.
• Scientific Prose Style.
• The Style of Official Documents.

Each functional style is characterized by the use of special devices, which form its peculiarity. They are called stylistic devices.

All the stylistic devices can be divided into two large groups: tropes and figures of speech, though some linguists include tropes into figures of speech as well. Other linguists say that tropes are studied by stylistics of units, or paradigmatic stylistics, and figures of speech appear in stylistics of sequences, or syntagmatic stylistics.

The principle manifested in tropes is that of analogy. Some similar feature in otherwise dissimilar things is discovered and the discovered similarity suggests an image of that which described.

Figures of speech are stylistic devices based on interrelation of meanings in sequence of linguistic units.

Stylistic devices can occur on different levels of the language; thus, we speak about phonetic, lexical, morphological and syntactical expressive means. Let’s examine them closer.

 

1. Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices.

 

It is common knowledge, these devices occur on the phonetic level of the language. The sound of most words taken separately has no aesthetic value. It is in combination with other words that a word may acquire a desired phonetic effect.

These devices are considered to be the most expressive, because they deal with the form of the utterance and use human voice as the main expressive means. They are: graphons, scanning, onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance, rhyme and rhythm. The first three of them are tropes, the rest are figures of speech.

 

2.1. Graphons.

We often treat language or speech as its written form, because it’s fixed, visible and easier to preserve. But written form creates difficulties if the author wants to show some peculiarities of the hero’s speech (dialect, illiteracy, private drawbacks) or to stress a word or group of words to show their special importance in the sentence. This task can be gained with the help ofgraphons – unusual, non-standard spelling of words, showing either deviations from Standard English or some peculiarity in pronouncing words or phrases emphatically.

“Thquire! Your thervant! This ith a bad pieth of bithnith, thith ith…”(C. Dickens, ‘Hard Times’)

Most graphons show features of territorial or social dialect of the speaker or his social standing. Highly typical in this respect is the reproduction, by many British writers, of cockney, the dialect of the lower classes of the London population. Here is a funny story of a cockney family trying to use correct English in their American visitor’s presence:

“Father,” said one of the children at breakfast, “I want some more ‘am, please.” – “You mustn’t say ‘am, my child, the correct form of the word is ‘am,” retorted his father, passing the plate with sliced ham on it. –“But I did say ‘am,” pleaded the boy. –“No, you didn’t: you said ‘am instead of ‘am.” The mother turned to the guest, smiling: ”Oh, don’t mind them, sir, pray. They are both saying ‘am and both think it is ‘am they are saying.”

 

2.2. Scanning.

Another way of intensifying a word or phrase, making it more prominent and expressive, is scanning, i.e., uttering each syllable or part of a word as a phonetically independent unit, in retarded tempo.

The graphic means of showing it is hyphenated spelling: ”Im-pos-sible!”

A speaker may strengthen, emphasize, make more prominent the word when he, for instance, intensifies its initial consonant, which is shown in the graphon as doubling letter: “N-no!”

Often a word or a word-group is emphatically stressed by the speaker without retardation of the tempo of speech and without dividing it into the syllables. This part of the utterance is specially modulated (changing volume and pitch: rise-fall in monosyllabic and disyllabic words and, possibly, rise-fall-rise in polysyllables. Such words are printed in italics, capitalization or other ways of showing their special position within the sentence.

“She was simply beautiful”.

“I’ll NEVER see him again”.

“Appeeeee Noooooyeeeeeerrr!’ (Happy New Year).

“Then suddenly, there sounded from behind the largest wool shed, … Mia-oo-oo-O-O!”(“Voyage”, K. Mansfield)

 

2.3. Onomatopoeia.

Onomatopoeia is a combination of speech-sounds which aims at imitating sounds produced in nature (wind, sea, thunder, etc.), by things (machines, tools, etc.), people (singing, laughter, patter of feet, etc.), and by animals.

There are two varieties of onomatopoeia: direct and indirect.

Direct onomatopoeia is contained in words that imitate natural sounds (ding-dong, buzz, bang, mew, ping-pong, cuckoo, drip-drop, etc.).

Indirect onomatopoeia is a combination of sounds the aim of which is to make the sound of the utterance an echo of its sense. (thus, the repetition of the sound S in the following line of E. A. Poe gives us the idea of rustling of the curtains: ‘And the silken, sad, uncertain, rustling of each purple curtain…’;

and the lines ‘To the tintinabulation that so musically wells

From the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Bells, bells, bells -

From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells’ arose in our mind the idea of a chain of small bells that tinkle at one and the same time.)

 

2.4. Alliteration (assonance).

Alliterationis a phonetic stylistic device which aims at imparting a melodic effect to the utterance. The essence of this device lies in the repetition of similar sounds, in particular consonants, in close succession, particularly at the beginning of successive words:

‘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 does not bear any lexical or other meaning, but, if repeated, the sounds produce an effect on the reader increasing the impression of the lines read.

The recurrence of the same vowel in close succession is called assonance and has the same aim as alliteration: ‘Tell this soul with sorrow laden, if within the distant Aiden,

I shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore…’ (E. A. Poe)

Alliteration in the English language is deeply rooted in the traditions of English folklore. Thus, in Beowulf: Fyrst forð 3ewat: flota wæs on ÿðum,

bát under beor3e. Beornas 3earwe

on stefn sti3on:strêamas wundon,

sund wið sande: sec3as bæron

on bearm nacan beorhte frætwe…

Alliteration in Old English verse was used to consolidate the sense within the line, leaving the relation between the lines rather loose.

The traditions of folklore are exceptionably stable and alliteration is very typical in it. It is frequently used as a well-tested means not only in verse, but in emotive prose, in newspaper headlines, in the titles of books, in proverbs and sayings (tit for tat, blind as a bat, to rob Peter to pay Paul; ‘Sense and Sensibility’, ‘Pride and Prejudice’).

 

2.5. Rhyme.

Rhymeis a repetition of identical or similar terminal sound combinations of words.

Rhyming words are usually placed at a regular distance from each other. In a verse they are usually placed at the end of corresponding lines. We distinguish between full rhymes and incomplete rhymes, compound and eye- rhymes.

The full rhyme presupposes identity of the vowel sound and the following consonant sounds in a stressed syllable (night – right; light – plight; sun – done, etc.).

Incomplete rhymes may be vowel and consonant. In vowel rhymes the vowels of the syllables in corresponding words are identical, but the consonants may be different (flesh – fresh – press). Consonant rhymes, on the contrary, show concordance in consonants and disparity in vowels (tale – tool. Flung –long).

Sometimes one word can be rhymed with a combination of words, or two word combinations are rhymed together (bottom – forgot them – shot him). Such rhymes are called compound rhymes.

In eye- rhyme the letters but not the sounds are identical (love – prove; flood – brood; have – grave). It can be perceived in the written verse better than while reading aloud. Many eye-rhymes are the result of historical changes in the vowel sounds in certain positions. The words that were once rhyming began to sound differently for the time being. But on the analogy of such pairs, new eye-rhymes have been coined and the model now functions alongside ear-rhymes.

According to the way the rhymes are arranged within the stanza, certain models have crystallized, for instance:

1. couplets – when the last words of two successive lines are rhymed. This is commonly marked aa.
2. triple rhymes - rhymes aaa.
3. cross rhymes - abab.
4. framing or ring rhymes – abba.

There is still another variety of rhyme which is called internal rhyme. The thyming words are placed not at the ends of the lines but within the line, as:

‘Once upon a midnight dreary while I pondered weak and weary…’ (E. A. Poe)

Internal rhyme breaks the line into two distinct parts, more strongly consolidating the ideas expressed in them.

 

2.6. Rhythm.

Rhythmis a flow, movement, procedure, characterized by basically regular recurrence of elements or features, as beat, or accent, in alternation with opposite or different elements or features. It is primarily a periodicity of different type. In speech it is a recurrence of stressed syllables within the same periods of time.

According to some investigations, rhythmical periodicity in verse “requires intervals of about three quarters of a second between successive peaks of periods”. It is a deliberating arrangement of speech into regularly recurring units intended to be grasped as a definite periodicity which makes rhythm a stylistic device.

Thus, rhythm is the main factor which brings order into the utterance.

Prose rhythm, unlike verse rhythm, lacks consistency, as it follows various principles. But nevertheless a trained ear will always detect a kind of alternation of syntactical units. The task is then to find these units and to ascertain the manner of alternation. t is the feature that brings English speech its peculiarity.

1. Lexical expressive means and stylistic devices.

 

We express our thoughts with the help of words, because words have meaning. But the majority of words have two meanings: direct, or vocabulary, and additional, or connotative meaning. Taking into consideration both meanings of a word, we may represent the whole of the word-stock of the English language as being divided into 3 main layers:

1. The literary layer.
2. The neutral layer.
3. The colloquial layer.

The literary and the colloquial layers contain a number of subgroups.

The literary vocabulary consists of the following groups of words:

1. common literary.
2. terms and learned words.
3. poetic words.
4. archaic words.
5. barbarisms and foreign words.
6. literary coinages including nonce-words.

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. Other groups in the literary layer are regarded as special literary vocabulary and those in the colloquial layer as special colloquial (non-literary) ones.

Neutral words, which form the bulk of the English vocabulary, are used in all the layers. Neutral words are the main source of synonymy and polysemy.

Most neutral English words are monosyllabic, as, in the process of development form Old English to Modern English, most of the parts of speech lost their distinguishing affixes. This phenomenon has led to the development of conversion as the most productive means of word-building.

Common literary words are chiefly used in writing and in polished speech. Literary units stand in opposition to colloquial units. For example:

Literary	Neutral	Colloquial
infant	child	Kid
parent	father	Dad
retire	go away	get out
youth	boy	teenager
proceed	continue	go on
maiden	girl	flapper
commence	begin	go ahead

 

Opposing pairs

Both literary and colloquial words have their upper and lower ranges. The lower range of literary words approaches the neutral layer and has an obvious tendency to pass into that layer. And the upper range of the colloquial layer can very easily pass into the neutral one.

Common colloquial vocabulary is represented as overlapping into the standard English vocabulary and is to be considered as part of it. It borders both on the neutral vocabulary and on the special colloquial one.

Some of the lexical items belonging to this stratum are close to the non-standard colloquial groups such as jargonisms, professionalisms, etc. They are on the border-line between the common colloquial vocabulary and the special colloquial or non-standard vocabulary. Other words approach the neutral bulk of the English vocabulary (teenager, hippie).

As it was already mentioned, special literary vocabulary contain terms and learned words, poetic words, archaic words, barbarisms and foreign words and literary coinages including nonce-words.

Terms and learned words.

Terminology is a skeleton language to talk about their subject-matter.

The essential characteristics of a term is its highly conventional character. A term is generally very easily coined and easily accepted.

A term is directly connected with the concept it denotes.

Terms are mostly and predominantly used in special works dealing with the notions of some branch of science. They belong to the style of language of science.

The function of terms, if encountered in other styles, is either to indicate the technical peculiarities of the subject dealt with, or to make some reference to the occupation of a character whose language would naturally contain special words and expressions. Scientists speak that way.

Poetic and highly literary words.

Poetic words form a rather insignificant layer of the special literary vocabulary. They are mostly archaic or very rarely used/ their aim is to produce an elevated effect. They have a marked tendency to detach themselves from the common literary word-stock and gradually assume the quality of terms denoting certain definite notions and calling forth poetic diction.

Poetic words and expressions are called upon to sustain the special elevated atmosphere of poetry.

Poetical tradition has kept alive such archaic words and forms as yclept –called; quoth-spoke; eftsoons-again, which are used even by modern ballad-mongers.

E.G. Deserted is my own good hall….(G. Byron)

A modern English literary critic has remarked that in journalese a policeman never goes, but proceeds to the appointed place; the picturesque reporter seldom talks of a horse, it is a steed or a charger; the sky is welkin, the valley is vale, etc.

Poetic words colour the utterance with a certain air of loftiness.

Archaic, obsolescent and obsolete words.

The word-stock of a language is in an increasing state of change. Words change their meaning and sometimes drop out of the language. New words spring up and replace the old ones. Some words stay in the language a very long time and do not lose their meaning but gain new ones becoming richer and richer polysemantically. Other word live but a short time and disappear leaving no trace of their existence.

We shall distinguish 3 stages in the aging process of words:

1) The beginning of the aging process when the word becomes rarely used. Such words are called obsolescent, i.e. they are in the stage of gradually passing out of general use. In the English language these are the pronoun thou and its forms; the verbal ending –est (thou makest), the ending-th instead of –s (habeth, maketh) and the pronoun ye.

To the category of obsolescent words belong many French borrowings which have been kept in the literary language as a means of preserving the spirit of earlier periods, e.g. pallet (a straw mattress); a palfrey (a small horse); garniture (furniture).

2) The second group of archaic words are those that have already gone completely out of use but are still recognized by the English-speaking community: e.g. methinks ( it seems to me); nay (no). these words are called obsolete.

3) The third group, which may be called archaic proper, are words which are no longer recognizable in modern English, words that were in use in Old English and which have either dropped out of the language entirely or have changed in their appearance so much that they have become unrecognizable, e.g. troth – faith; a losel – an idler.

The border lines between the groups are not distinct.

Barbarisms and Foreignisms.

In the vocabulary of the English language there is a considerable layer of words called barbarisms. These are words of foreign origin which have not entirely been assimilated into the English language. They bear the appearance of a borrowing and are felt as something alien to the native tongue.

These words are considered to be on the outskirts of the literary language.

Most of them have corresponding English synonyms, e.g. chic=stylish; bon mot=a clever witty saying; e.g.; i.e.; etc.

It is very important to distinguish between barbarisms and foreign words proper. Barbarisms are words which have already become acts of the English language. They are part and parcel of the English word-stock, though they remain on the outskirts of the literary vocabulary. Foreign words, though used for certain stylistic purposes, do not belong to the English vocabulary. They are not registered by English dictionaries, while barbarisms are generally given in the body of the dictionary.

In printed works foreign words and phrases are generally italicized to indicate their alien nature or their stylistic value. Barbarisms, on the contrary, are not made conspicuous in the text unless they bear a special load of stylistic information.

Literary coinages (including nonce-words).

There is an ambiguous term in linguistics; this term is neologism. In dictionaries it is generally defined as ‘a new word or a new meaning for an established word.’

Every period in the development of a language produces an enormous number of new words or new meanings of established words. Most of them do not live long. They are coined for use at the moment of speech, and therefore possess a peculiar property –that of temporariness. New coinages may replace old words and become established in the language as synonyms and later as substitutes for the old words.

The coining of new words generally arises first of all with the need to designate new concepts resulting from the development of science. It may also be the result of a search for a more economical, brief and compact form of utterance which proves to be a more expressive means of communicating the idea.

The first type of newly coined words, i.e. those which designate new-born concepts, are named terminological coinages. The 2^nd type, i.e. words coined because their creators seek expressive utterance are stylistic coinages.

Word-building by means of affixation is still predominant in coining new words. E.g.: orbiter=a spacecraft designed to orbit a celestial body; wreckologist=a person that studies shipwrecks to prevent them; moisturize=to make something wetter, anti-hero, freckledom; askee=a person who asks a question and doesn’t wait for the answer; showmanship; bananarama; talkathon.

Another type of neologism is the nonce-word, i.e. a word coined to suit one particular occasion. Nonce-words remain on the outskirts of thee literary language and not infrequently remind us of the writers who coined them. They are created to designate some insignificant subjective idea or evaluation of a thing or phenomenon and generally become moribund. They rarely pass into the language as legitimate units of the vocabulary, but they remain in the language as constant manifestations of its innate power of word-building. E.g. “I’m wived in Texas, and mother-in-lawed, and uncled, and aunted, and cousined…”(J. Steinbeck)

In modern English words are also coined to shorten the utterance, e.g. UNO, Unesco, NATO.

Special colloquial vocabulary.

Slang.

It seems to mean everything that is below the standard of usage of present-day English. But originally it meant language peculiar to a particular group or the special and often secret vocabulary used by a class (as thieves, beggars); the jargon used by or associated with a particular trade, profession, or field of activity; a non-standard vocabulary composed of words and senses characterized primarily by connotations of extreme informality. E.g.: to go nuts – to become mad; to kick the bucket – to die; bread–basket - a stomach; to do a flit – to quit one’s flat at night without paying the rent or board; rot – nonsense.

Jargonisms.

In the non-literary vocabulary of the English language there is a group of words that are called jargonisms. Jargon is a recognized term for a group of words that exists in almost every language and whose aim is to preserve secrecy within one or another social group. Jargonisms are generally old words with entirely new meanings imposed on them. E.g: grease - money; a loaf - head; a tiger hunter - a gambler. Cf. Russian: «не подмажешь – не поедешь»; «что у тебя на плечах – голова или кочан капусты?»; «медвежатник».

Almost any social group of people has its own jargon. The mostwell – known in English are cant (the jargon of thieves and vagabonds), military slang (the jargon of the army), the jargon of jazz people, the jargon of sportsmen and many others.

Slang, contrary to jargon, needs no translation. It is not a secret code. It is easily understood by the English-speaking community and is only regarded as something not quite regular. Both jargon and slang differ from ordinary language mainly in their vocabularies. The structure of the sentences and the morphology of the language remain practically unchanged.

Jargonisms do not always remain in the possession of a given social group. Some of them migrate into other social strata and may become recognized in the literary language of the nation. E.g. fan, bluff, humbug.

That is why it is so difficult to draw a hard and fast line between slang and jargon. When a jargonisms becomes common, it has passed on to a higher step on the ladder of word groups and becomes slang or colloquial. E. g. cash in the meaning of ‘metal money’; «бабки» и «капуста» in Russian in the meaning of ‘money’.

Professionalisms.

Professionalisms are words used in a definite trade, profession or calling by people connected by common interests both at work and at home. Professionalisms are correlated to terms.

The main feature of a professionalism is its technicality. Professionalisms are special words in he non-literary layer of the English vocabulary, whereas terms are a specialized group of words belonging to the literary layer. Professionalisms generally remain in circulation within a definite community, as they are linked to a common occupation and common social interests. The semantic structure of the term is usually transparent and is therefore easily understood. The semantic structure of a professionalism is often dimmed by the image on which the meaning of it is based, particularly when the features of thee object in question reflect the process of the work, metaphorically or metonymically. E. g. tin-fish=a submarine; block-buster = a bomb to destroy skyscrapers; a piper = a specialist who decorates pastry with the use of a cream-pipe.

Dialectal words.

This group of words is obviously opposed to the other groups of the non-literary English vocabulary. Dialectal words are those which in the process of integration of the English national language remained beyond its literary boundaries, and their use is confined to a definite locality. E.g. lass(ie)=girl.

Many of the words fixed in dictionaries as dialectal are of Scottish origin, because Scotland has struggled to retain the peculiarities of her language.

Vulgarisms.

Vulgarisms are:

1) expletives and swear words which are of an abusive character, e.g. damn, bloody, to hell, goddam.

2) obscene words. These are known as four-letter words the use of which is banned in any form of intercourse as being indecent. They are called taboo words sometimes. Historians say that in Middle Ages they were accepted in oral speech and after Caxton even admitted to the printed page. All of these words are of Anglo-Saxon origin.

Vulgarisms are often used in conversation out of habit, without any thought of what they mean. Unfortunately in modern fiction these words have gained legitimacy, but they will never acquire the status of standard English vocabulary and will always remain on the outskirts.

The function of expletives is almost the same as that of interjections, that is to express strong emotions, mainly annoyance, anger, vexation and the like. They are not to be found in any functional style of language except emotive prose, and here only in the direct speech of the characters.

Colloquial coinages.

Colloquial coinages or nonce-words are spontaneous and elusive. This proceeds from the very nature of the colloquial words as such. Not all of the colloquial nonce-words are fixed in dictionaries or even in writing and therefore most of them disappear from the language leaving no trace in it.

Nonce-words of a colloquial nature are not built by means of affixes but are based on certain semantic changes in words that are almost imperceptible to the linguistic observer until the word finds its way into print. E.g. to be the limit = to be unbearable; cool=stylish.

New literary coinages will always bear the brand of individual creation and will therefore have more or less precise semantic boundaries. The meaning of literary coinages can easily be grasped by the reader because of the use of thee productive means of word-building, and also from the context, of course. E. g. weatherology; womenkind; hateship; housemadship; двухметроворостая.

 

No wonder then that many stylistic devices exist on lexical level. As it was already mentioned, words have two meanings: denotative, or direct, and connotative, or emotive; very often both meanings exist together and impose the word additional hint of notion. Besides, words in context may acquire additional lexical meanings not fixed in the dictionaries, what we call contextual meaning. While giving the classification of lexically based stylistic devices, we are to take into consideration the interaction between different meanings of a word.

 

3.1. Interaction of primary dictionary and contextually imposed meanings.

The interaction between the primary dictionary meaning and a meaning is imposed on the word by a micro-context may be maintained along different lines. One line is when the author identifies two objects which have nothing in common, but in which sees something that may make the reader perceive these two objects as identical. Another line is when the author finds it possible to substitute one object for another on the ground that there is some kind of interdependence between the two corresponding objects. A third line is when a certain property of an object is used in an opposite or contradictory sense.

Thus, we distinguish within this group of devices: metaphor; metonymy; irony.

3.1.1. metaphor.

This stylistic device is based on the principle of identification of two objects. It is a most widely used trope, based upon a traceable similarity. But, contrary to the simile, there is no formal element to indicate comparison. It denotes expressive renaming on the basis of similarity of two objects: the real object of speech and the one whose name is actually used, though there is no real connection between the two ( a film-star; a needle’ eye; a golden sunset; the last colours of sunset were dripping…).

Metaphors, like all stylistic devices, are classified according to their degree of unexpectedness. Absolutely unexpected (unpredictable) metaphors are called genuine metaphors. They are mainly used in literary texts.

Those which are commonly used in speech and therefore are sometimes even fixed in dictionaries as expressive means of language are trite or dead metaphors.

Genuine metaphors are regarded as belonging to language-in-action; trite metaphors belong to the language-as-a-system.

Trite metaphors are sometimes injected with new vigour, i.e. their primary meaning is re-established alongside the new (derivative) meaning. This is done by supplying the central image created by the metaphor with additional words bearing some reference to the main word (‘Mr. Pickwick bottled up his vengeance and corked it down’). Such metaphors are called sustained or prolonged.

3.1.2. metonymy.

The trope based on the principle of substitution of one object for another is called metonymy. Metonymic relations are varied in character.

• The name of an instrument may stand for the name of the action (‘lend me your ears’- listen to me; …’the sword is the worst argument’…);
• the name of a symbol may be used instead of which this symbol denotes (Washington attacked Iraqi);
• something that a person possesses is named instead of the person himself ( He married money);
• a quality of a thing may stand for the thing itself (‘The marble spoke’);
• the container is named instead of a thing contained (The hall applauded.).

3.1.3. irony.

It is a stylistic device based on the simultaneous realization of two logical meanings – dictionary and contextual, but the two meanings stand in opposition to each other. Irony must not be confused with humor, although they have very much in common. Humour always causes laughter. But the function of irony is not confined to producing a humorous effect. In a sentence like ‘How clever of you!’ where, due to the intonation pattern, the word ‘clever’ conveys a sense opposite to its literal signification, the irony does not cause a humorous effect. It rather expresses a feeling of irritation, displeasure, pity or regret. A word used ironically may sometimes express very subtle nuances of meaning

(“I like the weather, when it is not rainy,

That is, I like two months of every year" – G.G. Byron).

 

3.2. Interaction of primary and derivative logical meaning.

These tropes are based on the polysemantic effect of the word. The problem of polysemy is one of the vexed questions of lexicology. It is sometimes impossible to draw a line between a derivative meaning of a polysemantic word and a homonym.

3.2.1. zeugma.

It is the use of a word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations to two adjacent words in the context (‘She lost her heart and necklace at a ball’). This stylistic device is particularly favoured in English emotive prose. Zeugma is a strong and effective device to maintain the purity of the primary meaning when the two meanings clash.

3.2.2. pun.

It is another stylistic device based on the interaction of two well-known meanings of a word or phrase. It is difficult to draw a vivid distinction between zeugma and the pun. The only reliable distinguishing feature is a structural one: zeugma is the realization of two meanings with the help of a verb which is made to refer to at least two different subjects or objects (direct or indirect). The pun is more independent. There need not necessarily be a word in the sentence to which the pun-word refers ( ‘There comes a period in every man’s life, but she is just a semicolon in his.’).

 

3.3. Interaction of logical and emotive meanings.

Different emotional elements may appear in the utterance depending on its character and pragmatic aspect. There are words the function of which is to arose emotion in the reader or listener. In such words emotiveness prevails over intellectuality. There are also words in which the logical meaning is almost entirely ousted. These words express feelings which have passed through our mind and therefore they have acquired an intellectual embodiment. Some emotive words have become the recognized symbols of emotions; but the emotiveness is not expressed directly but referred to.

Sometimes emotiveness is expressed by words which have emotive meaning in their semantic structure. The most highly emotive words are words charged with emotive meaning to the extent that the logical meaning can hardly be registered. These are interjections and all kinds of exclamations. Next come epithets, in which there is a kind of parity between emotive and logical meaning. Then come epithets of the oxymoronic type, in which the logical meaning prevails over the emotive but where the emotive is the result of the clash between the logical and illogical.

3.3.1. Interjections and exclamatory words.

Interjections are words we use when we express our feelings strongly and which may be said to exist in language as conventional symbols of human emotions.

In traditional grammars the interjection is regarded as a part of speech as well as the noun, adjective, verb, etc. but there is another view which regards the interjection as a sentence. Indeed, a word taken separately is deprived of any intonation which suggests a complete idea, whereas an interjection always manifests a definite attitude on the part of the speaker towards the problem and therefore has intonation. The pauses between words within a sentence are very brief, though the pause between the interjection and the words that follow is long and significant. Still, an interjection is not a sentence but a word with strong emotional meaning.

Interjections can be divided into primary and derivative. Primary interjections are devoid of any logical meaning (Oh! Ah! Bah! Pooh! Hush!).

Derivative interjections may retain logical meaning (Heavens! Dear me! Look here!). They are not interjections as such; a better name for them would be exclamatory words and word-combinations.

Some adjectives, nouns and adverbs can also take the function of interjections (Terrible! Awful! Great!). with proper intonation and with an adequate pause these words may acquire a strong emotional colouring and are equal in force to interjections. In that case we say that they have acquired an additional grammatical meaning of interjections.

3.3.2. epithets.

The epithet is a weaker expressive means than the above-mentioned ones, but it is still forceful.

It is a trope 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, and frequently imposing on him, some of the properties or features of the object with the aim of giving an individual perception and evaluation of these features or properties.

The epithet is markedly subjective and evaluative. Thus, in ‘green fields’,’ white snow’, ‘round table’ we have attributes, but not epithets. But in ‘wild wind’, ‘heart-burning smile’ we see evaluation as well as description; hence, they are epithets.

the epithet makes a strong impact on the reader, that he unwittingly begins to see and evaluate things as the writer wants him to.

Epithets may be classified from different standpoints: semantic and structural.

Semantically, epithets may be divided into two groups: those associated with the noun following and those unassociated with it.

Associated epithets are those which point to a feature which is essential to the objects they describe: the idea expressed in the epithet is to a certain extent inherent in the concept of the object. The associated epithet immediately refers the mind to the concept in question due to some actual quality of the object it is attached to (dark forest, dreary midnight).

Unassociated epithets are used to characterize the object by adding a feature not inherent in it; a feature that may be so unexpected as to strike a reader by its novelty ( sullen earth, voiceless sands).

Structurally, epithets can be viewed from the angle of:

• composition;
• distribution.

From the point of view of their compositional structure epithets may be divided into simple, compound, phrase and sentence epithets.

Simple epithets are ordinary adjectives (sweet smile, deep thoughts).

Compound epithets are built like compound adjectives (heart-burning smile, sylph-like figure).

The tendency to cram into one language unit as much information as possible has led to new compositional models for epithets which we shall call phrase epithets. A phrase and even a whole sentence may become an epithet. But unlike simple and compound epithets, which may have pre- or post-position, phrase epithets are always placed before the nouns they refer to ( ‘ his go-to-hell-all-of-you expression irritated me mostly’). Sentence epithets are rather long sometimes ( “There is a sort of ‘Oh-what-a-wicked-world-this-is-and-how-I-wish-I-could-do-something—to-make-it-better-and-nobler’ expression about Montmorency…”).

Another structural variety of the epithet is reversed epithet. It is composed of two nouns linked in an of-phrase. The subjective, evaluating, emotional element is embodied not in the noun attribute but in the noun structurally described (a devil of a job; a Little Flying Dutchman of a cab; a dog of a fellow; her brute of a brother). The noun to be assessed is contained in the of-phrase and the noun it qualifies is a metaphor.

From the point of view of the distribution of the epithets in the sentence, the first model to be pointed out is the string of epithets ( ‘such was the background of the wonderful, cruel, enchanting, bewildering, fatal, great city’).

As in any enumeration, the string of epithets gives a many-sided depiction of the object. But in this many-sidedness there is always a suggestion of an ascending order of emotive elements, which culminates in the last epithet.

Another distributional model is the transferred epithet. Transferred epithets are ordinary logical attributes generally describing the state of a human being, but made to refer to an inanimate object (sick chamber, sleepless pillow, merry hours, restless pace). The meaning of the logical attributes in such combinations acquires a definite emotional colouring.

3.3.3. oxymoron.

It is a combination of two words (mostly an adjective and a noun or an adverb with an adjective) in which the meanings of the two clash, being opposite in sense (sweet sorrow, low skyscraper, horribly beautiful).

Oxymoron has one main structural model: adjective + noun.

 

3.4. Interaction of logical and nominal meanings (antonomasia).

The interplay between the logical and nominal meanings of a word is called antonomasia. Here the two kinds of meanings are realized in the word simultaneously (“ Mr. Facing-Both-Ways does not get very far in this world.”) .

Sometimes authors use special names like Miss Blue-Eyes, Mr. Woodworm, Sobakevich to give additional characteristics to their heroes. Such names are called token or telling names.

 

3.5. Intensification of a certain feature of a thing or phenomenon.

In order to understand the linguistic nature of the stylistic devices (SDs) of this group, we must bear in mind that any definition can point out only one or two properties of a phenomenon, because the definer tries to single out the most essential features of the object.

3.5.1. simile.

The intensification of some one feature of the concept in question is realized in a device called simile.

This device compare two things or objects. But ordinary comparison and simile must not be confused. Comparison means weighing two objects belonging to one class of things with the purpose of establishing the degree of their sameness or difference. To use a simile is to characterize one object by bringing it into contact with another object belonging to an entirely different class of things. Comparison takes into consideration all the properties of the two objects, stressing the one that is compared (the boy seems as clever as his mother. ‘Boy’ and ‘mother’ belong to the same class – human beings – so this is not a simile but ordinary comparison). Simile excludes all the properties of the two objects except one which is made common to them (“Maidens, like moths, are ever caught by glare” ‘Maidens’ and ‘moths’ belong to different classes of objects, and Byron has found the concept moth to indicate one of the secondary features of the concept maiden, i.e. being easily lured). Of the two concepts brought together in the simile – one characterized (maidens), and the other characterizing (moths) – the feature intensified will be more inherent in the latter than in the former. Moreover, the object characterized is seen in quite a new and unexpected light.

Similes set one object against another regardless of the fact that they may be completely alien to each other. Without our being aware of it, the simile gives rise to a new understanding of the object characterizing as well as of the object characterized.

3.5.2. periphrasis.

Periphrasis is a device which, according to Webster’s dictionary, denotes the use of a longer phrasing in place of a possible shorter and plainer form of expression. It is also called circumlocution due to the round-about or indirect way used to name a familiar object or phenomenon (the cap and gown – student body; the fair sex – women; my better half – my wife. “But an addition to the little party now made its appearance” = another person came in).

3.5.3. euphemism.

Euphemism is a word or phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by a conventionally more acceptable one (to die = to pass away; to join the silent majority; to be no more; to be gone; to kick the bucket; to go west, etc.)

3.5.4. hyperbole\meiosis.

Another sd which also has the function of intensifying one certain property of the object described is hyperbole. It can be defined as a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of a feature essential (unlike periphrasis) to the object or phenomenon. In its extreme form this exaggeration is carried to an illogical degree, sometimes ad absurdum (“He was so tall that I was not sure he had a face”).

The antonym to hyperbole is meiosis, or understatement (intentional undervaluation of norm). It is lessening, weakening, reducing the real characteristics of the object of speech. In other words, it is a device serving to underline the insignificance of what we speak about (he knows a thing or two = something; it will cost you a pretty penny = much; just a moment = wait some time).

 

3.6. Peculiar use of expressions.

In language there are two clearly-marked tendencies:

• The analytical tendency (seeks to dissever one component from another).
• The synthetic tendency (seeks to integrate the parts of the combination into a stable unit).

3.6.1. cliché.

A cliché is an expression that has become hackneyed and trite. “They lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long over-use”, as Random House Dictionary says. There is always a contradiction between what is aimed at and what is actually attained (rosy dreams of youth; the whip and carrot policy; let bygones be bygones).

3.6.2. proverbs and sayings.

They are facts of language. They have some typical features by which it is possible to determine whether or not we are dealing with one. These typical features are: rhythm, sometimes rhyme and\or alliteration, and brevity.

The utterance presents a pattern which can be successfully used for other utterances. The peculiarity of the use of a proverb lies in the fact that the actual wording becomes a pattern which needs no new wording to suggest extensions of meaning which are contextual. It presupposes a simultaneous application of two meanings: the primary meaning and an extended meaning drawn from the context.

Almost every good writer makes use of proverbs, sayings and idioms. They use them in the reduced form but their meaning is clearly seen (“Come! Milk is spilt”-from ‘it’s no use crying over spilt milk’).

3.6.3 epigrams.

An epigram is a stylistic device akin to a proverb, the only difference being that epigrams are coined by individual