THE METALANGUAGE OF LINGUOSTYLISTICS

ПРАКТИКУМ

ПО СТИЛИСТИКЕ

СОВРЕМЕННОГО АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА

Учебное пособие

для студентов IV курса

институтов и факультетов

иностранных языков

Самара 

Издательство СГПУ

2006

Печатается по решению редакционно-издательского совета Самарского государственного педагогического университета

УДК 811.111(075.8)

РЕЦЕНЗЕНТЫ:

кандидат филологических наук,

профессор кафедры английской филологии Ю.Е. Сорокин

(Самарский государственный педагогический университет)

кандидат филологических наук,

доцент кафедры английской филологии А.С. Гринштейн

(Самарский государственный университет)

Б 82

Борисова Ел. Б., Кулинич М.А., Перов Р.В. ПРАКТИКУМ ПО СТИЛИСТИКЕ СОВРЕМЕННОГО АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА :Учебное пособие для студентов IV курса институтов и факультетов иностранных языков.

Практикум предназначен для аудиторной и самостоятельной работы, содержит планы семинарских занятий, перечень вопросов для обсуждения, список рекомендуемой литературы, практические задания для подготовки к семинарам, а также вопросы и тренировочные тесты для подготовки к экзамену. Приложение (клише для стилистического анализа) призвано помочь выработать навыки анализа стилистических явлений на различных уровнях описания (фонетическом, морфологическом, лексическом и синтаксическом).

ISBN 5-8428-0512-Х

Самара: Издательство СГПУ, 2006. - 84 с.

                                                                           © Борисова Ел. Б., 

                                                                    Кулинич М.А., Перов Р.В. 2006

                                                                                              © СГПУ, 2006

THE METALANGUAGE OF LINGUOSTYLISTICS

In the European philological tradition there have always existed phenomena regarded as linguostylistic concepts proper. They are: tropes  which are based on the transfer of meaning, when a word (or a combination of words) is used to denote an object which is not normally correlated with this word, and figures of speech whose stylistic effect is achieved due to the unusual arrangement of linguistic units, unusual construction or extension of utterance.

There is a considerable number of terms which can serve to denote different tropes and figures of speech. Most of these terms go back to ancient rhetoric where all the stylistic devices were thoroughly investigated and provided with names and definitions. In the course of time some terms used in Greek and Roman philology have disappeared whereas new ones were introduced. The meanings of some terms have changed. Thus, the Greek "metaphora" was used by Aristotle in a very broad sense, close to the modern meaning of the term "trope", that is, it embraced metonymy, synechdoche, hyperbole and simile.

Theoretically speaking, the division into tropes and figures, which can be traced back to classical philology, is characteristic not only of Russian but also of English and American philological traditions. A Russian anglicist, however, is bound to be faced with certain metalinguistic difficulties. The fact is that the English term "figure of speech" is often indiscriminately used to denote any stylistic device, including metaphor (this is how "metaphor" is defined, for instance, in one of the dictionaries of literary terms published in the U.S.A.: "a metaphor is a figure of speech in which one object is likened to another by speaking of it as if it were that other" - Standard College Dictionary. N.-Y. _# 1963). The term "trope", which was widely employed in the XVIII century in almost the same meaning as the Russian "троп", has practically fallen out of use.

Nevertheless we are convinced that the distinction between tropes and figures is not only a question of metalanguage. It concerns the ontology of linguostylistic phenomena, their essential features. We regard tropes and figures of speech as basic linguostylistic categories whose study should be based on their numerous realitions in speech.

     Expressive means of a language are those forms and properties that have the potential to make the utterance emphatic or expressive. They don’t change the semantic structure. They only add some degree of emotive force to the utterance structure. These can be found on all the levels – phonetic, phonographical, morphological, lexical or syntactical.

     A stylistic device is a literary model in which semantic and structural features are blended so that it represents a generalized pattern.

     All stylistic devices belong to expressive means, but not all expressive means are stylistic devices. Thus, phonetic phenomena, such as pitch, stress, pausation, tempo are all expressive means without being stylistic devices: I do know you. I’m really angry with that dog of yours (Intensifiers). According to Professor Galperin a stylistic device is such a generative model which through frequent use in language is transformed into a stylistic device (e.g. metaphor). It’s like an algorithm used for an expressive purpose.

     A convergence of expressive means and stylistic devices is the accumulation of several expressive means and stylistic devices of the same or different levels of language, promoting the same idea or emotion in the same context.

Phonographical and Phonostylistic                               Expressive means and stylistic devices                                                of the paradigmatic and syntagmatic level

Essential Terms:

graphon-intentional violation of the graphical shape of a word (or word combination) used to reflect its authentic pronunciation. It represents blurred, incoherent, careless pronunciation caused by young age, intoxication, ignorance of the discussed theme or social, territorial, educational status: "De old Foolosopher, like Hickey calls yuh, ain't yuh?"

ONOMATOPOEIA (SOUND SYMBOLISM) - the use of words whose sounds imitate those of the signified object or action. It occurs when there is a correspondence between the sound of a word and the sound or sense denoted by the word – i.e. when the word actually imitates or echoes the sound or sense it stands for: Buzz, murmur, clatter, whisper, cuckoo

paronomasia -a figure which consists in the deliberate (often humorous) use of the partial phonetic similarity of words different in meaning: A young man married is a man that's marred (Shakespeare); Gentlemen wanted their bankers prudent but not prudish.

II. In your books of either home reading or individual reading find the above mentioned expressive means and stylistic devices and comment upon their structure and stylistic function.

III. Do the following exercises:

Exercise I. Indicate the causes and effects of the following cases of alliteration, assonance and onomatopoeia:

1. He swallowed the hint with a gulp and a gasp and a grin.

2. The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

  The furrow followed free. (S. C.)   

3. The Italian trio tut-tutted their tongues at me. (Т. С.)

4. You, lean, long, lanky lam of a lousy bastard! (O'C.)

5. "Luscious, languid and lustful, isn't she?" "Those are not the correct epithets. She is-or rather was surly, lustrous and sadistic." (E. W.)

6. "Sh-sh." "But I am whispering." This continual shushing an­noyed him. (A. H.)

7. Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.

Up above the world so high,

Like a diamond in the sky. (Ch. R.)

8. Dreadful young creatures-squealing and squawking. (C.)

9. The quick crackling of dry wood aflame cut through the night. (St. H.)

Exercise II.     Think of the causes originating graphon (young age, a physical defect of speech, lack of education, the influence of dialectal norms,  affectation, intoxication, carelessness in speech, etc.):

1. He began to render the famous tune "I lost my heart in an English garden, Just where the roses of England grow" with much feeling:

"Ah-ee last mah-ee hawrt een ahn Angleesh gawrden, Jost whahr thah rawzaz ahv Angland graw." (H. C.)

2. She mimicked a lisp: “I don’t weally know wevver I’m a good girl. The last thing he’ll do would be to be mixed with a howwid woman.” (J. Br.)

3. "All the village dogs are no-'count mongrels, Papa says. Fish-gut eaters and no class a-tall; this here dog, he got insteek." (К. К.)

4. "My daddy's coming tomorrow on a nairplane." (S.)

5. After a hum a beautiful Negress sings "Without a song, the dahay would nehever end." (U.)

6. "Oh, well, then, you just trot over to the table and make your little mommy a gweat big dwink." (E. A.)

7. "I allus remember me man sayin' to me when I passed me scholarship - 'You break one o'my winders an' I'll skin ye alive'." (St. B.)

8. He spoke with the flat ugly "a" and withered "r" of Boston Irish, and Levi looked up at him and mimicked "All right, I'll give the caaads a break and staaat playing." (N. M.)

9. "Whereja get all these pictures?" he said. "Meetcha at the corner. Wuddaya think she's doing out there?" (S.)

10. "Lookat him go. D'javer see him walk home from school? You're French Canadian, aintcha?" (J. K.)