УДК 811.11Г38(075) ББК 81.432.1-7

Н. І. Панасенко

/. М. Підгайська

кандидат філологічних наук

О. В. Жарікова
Єфімов Л. П., Ясінецька О. А.

Є 91 Стилістика англійської мови і дискурсивний аналіз. Учбово-методичний посібник. - Вінниця: НОВА КНИГА, 2004. - 240 с

ISBN 966-7890-65-1

Посібник складається з декількох частин та додатків. У ньому представленні основні питання стилістики як науки, зокрема, теорія стилістичних прийомів, яка включає їх визначення, класифікацію, опис стилістичних функцій тощо. Англомовне викладення теоретичних понять супроводжується великою кількістю прикладів як з англійської, так і з української художньої літератури, шо істотно сприяє розумінню способів вираження навіть окремих нюансів стилістично забарвлених понять у специфічно англо- чи україномовному функціонуванні. Практична частина являє собою систему завдань для семінарських занять і самостійної роботи, спрямованих на закріплення теоретичного матеріалу та формування навичок стилістичного аналізу тексту.

Розрахований на студентів факультетів та інститутів іноземних мов, викладачів англійської мови, перекладачів.

ББК 81.432.1-7

ISBN 966-7890-65-1 © Видавництво «Нова Книга», 2004

О Єфімов Л. П., Ясінецька О. А., 2004

Devices 34

Figures of Substitution 46

Plans of Seminars 85

Practical Assignments for Seminars 90

Practical Assignments for Independent Work 143

Approximate Scheme of Overall Stylistic Analysis of a Fiction Text 174

Excerpts for Overall Stylistic Analysis 176

Fiction Extracts for a Comparative Analysis of English and Ukrainian
Means of Stylistic Expression in Belles-lettres 194

Final tests 209

EXAMINATION QUESTIONS 215

BASIC LITERATURE 217

SUPPLEMENTARY LITERATURE 217

QUOTED LITERATURE 227

Taking into account the particularities of teaching intended teachers and translators, we have provided illustrations to theoretical statements in three languages: English, Ukrainian and Russian. Some sections of exercises offer training in comparative practical work which aims at establishing stylistic par­allels between English and Ukrainian.

The book is in 8 parts. It includes 8 theoretical chapters, plans of semi­nars and independent work, practical assignments for seminars, practical as­signments for independent work, excerpts for overall stylistic analysis, fiction extracts for a comparative analysis of English and Ukrainian means of stylis­tic expression in belles-lettres, final tests in two variants, and examination questions. Practical assignments, fiction extracts for a comparative analysis and final tests were prepared by E. A. Yasinetskaya. The rest of the book was written by L. P. Yefimof.

This book does not try to cover everything. The authors lay stress on the practical aspect of stylistic studies. If the students, guided carefully by their teacher, can grasp the concepts and approaches outlined in these pages, they will establish for themselves the strong foundations upon which further courses of advanced study can be built.

The principle of amalgamation of stylistic devices into great classes, such as "figures of substitution" or "figures of combination", introduced in the the­oretical chapters was borrowed from the book Мороховский А. Н., Воро­бьева О. П., Лихошерст Н. И., Тимошенко 3. В. Стилистика английского языка. - Киев: Высшая школа, 1991. Some of our state­ments were expanded by insertions borrowed from the book English Lan­guage 2.0: An Introduction to Basics. — Manchester: Clifton Press, 1999-2002. These insertions are marked in the text by the symbol ^

4

Generalities Of Stylistics

The notion of stylistics. Stylistics is a branch of linguistics which deals with expressive resources and functional styles of a language.

Types of stylistics. linguo-stylistics is a science of functional styles and expressive potential of a language. Communicative (decoding) stylistics de­scribes expressive peculiarities of certain messages (texts). Coding stylistics (literary stylistics) deals with individual styles of authors. Contrastive stylis­tics investigates stylistic systems of two or more languages in comparison.

Connection of stylistics with other branches of linguistics. Stylistics and phonetics: Phonetics studies sounds, articulation, rhythmics and intona­tion. Stylistics concentrates on expressive sound combinations, intonational and rhythmic patterns. Stylistics and lexicology: Lexicology describes words, their origin, development, semantic and structural features. Stylistics also deals with words, but only those which are expressive in language or in speech. Stylistics and grammar: Grammar describes regularities of building words, word-combinations, sentences and texts. Stylistics restricts itself to those gram­mar regularities, which make language units expressive.

This connection gave birth to such interdisciplinary sciences as sh-listic semasiology (the science of stylistic devises or tropes), stylistic lexicology (the science of expressive layers of vocabulary, such as vulgarisms, jargon-isms, archaisms, neologisms etc. ), stylistic phonetics (the science of ex­pressive sound organization patterns), grammatical stylistics (the science of expressive morphological and syntactic language units).

5

The style a writer or speaker adopts depends partly on his own person­ality but very largely on what he has to say and what his purposes are. It| follows that style and subject matter should match each other appropriately. For example, a scientific report will obviously be much more formal and ob­jective in style than a poem which is trying to convey an intensely personal and moving experience. Just how important it is to choose an appropriate style can be seen by examining the following three sentences, which all say the same thing but in different ways:

Though these sentences say the same thing, the style is very different in each. The first sentence is unduly sentimental and rather pompous. It has a falsely religious ring to it because, in striving to be dignified, it is overstated. The second one is plain and simple because it is formed of simple neutral words and does not try to disguise the unpleasant fact of death by using a gentler expression like passing away. Its simplicity gives it a sincerity and a dignity which are lacking in the first sentence, and, according to how it was said, it would be capable of conveying immeasurable grief in a way which is not possible with the other two. The third sentence is ludicrously insensitive, the use of slang suggesting the speaker's lack of respect or concern for John's father.

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  One very important feature of good style is that it must be entirely appro­priate for the task it is performing.
  
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  This means that the author must take into account [even if unconscious­ly !] audience, form, and function.
  
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  Style might be good, yet hardly noticeable - because it is concentrated on effective communication. This is sometimes known as 'transparent' good style.
  
• 
  The following extract is from The Highway Code.
  

ahead or to the side. Give way to traffic on your right unless road markings indicate otherwise; but keep moving if the way is clear.

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  This is writing which makes its points as simply and as clearly as possi­ble. The vocabulary is that of everyday life, and in manner it is speaking to a general reader without trying to make an impression or draw atten­tion to itself in any way.
  

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  This writing is entirely free of literary effects or decoration.
  

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  In most writing however, 'good style' is normally associated with verbal inventiveness and clever manipulation of the elements of literary lan­guage.
  
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  The extract from Vladimir Nabokov's famous novel Lolita illustrates this point:
  

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  This is writing which is deliberately setting out to be impressive. It relies very heavily on decoration and ornament.
  
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  In this extract Nabokov uses lots of alliteration - the repetition of the M' and 4' sounds, metaphor- 'light' and 'fire' -andonomatopoeia- "trip', 'tap' - as well as such fancy wordplay as the orthographic and semantic parallels between 'life' and 'fire'.
  
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  Good style in speech and writing - like that in clothes or other matters involving taste - can go in and out of fashion.
  
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  Style in context. Style, in any kind of speech or writing, is extremely important to the overall function of communication. In most cases, a consistency of features produces what we understand as a pleasing style. That is, the style is appropriate to the context in which it occurs.
  
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  A discordant style is produced by the inclusion of some feature which does not fit with the stylistic context of the piece. In other words, the feature is out of place.
  
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  An example of this might be found in a personal letter which is signed 'Yours faithfully' or an aristocratic character in a novel speaking street slang for no good stylistic reason.
  

An extralingual (situational) context is formed by extralingual con­ditions in which communication takes place. Besides making the meaning of words well-defined, a situational context allows the speaker to economize on speech efforts and to avoid situationally redundant language signs. The com­mands of a surgeon in an operating room, such as "scalpel", "pincers" or "tampon", are understood by his assistants correctly and without any addi­tional explanations about what kind of tampon is needed.

Extralingual context can be physical or abstract and can significantly affect the communication. A conversation between lovers can be affected by

surroundings in terms of music, location, and the presence of others. Such surroundings form a physical context. A dialogue between colleagues can be affected by the nature of their relationship. That is, one may be of higher status than the other. Such nature forms an abstract context. Historical accounts are more easily understood when evoked in the context of their own time. Such context is called temporal or chronological. There would be a psychologi­cally advantageous context within which to tell one's spouse about that dent­ed bumper on the new car. Such context may be called psychological.

No linguistic unit exists in a vacuum and this is why dictionaries have only a limited function in conveying meaning devoid of context. Words do not have an absolute meaning. Shades of meaning emerge with variation in context. For example, if we say that "Peter the First was a great mon­arch", we are using great as an adjective to imply stately qualities and a large-scale impression of a historical figure. On the other hand, if we say "We had a great time at the party last night", the word great takes on a different meaning. The implication is that we enjoyed ourselves, and we wish to convey this in a rather exaggerated way. We are confident that our listener will understand. If we express our feelings to a sexual partner using the word love, that word means something quite different to the love we express to a two-year-old child. The context is different, and it affects the meaning of the word love.

In a detailed linguistic sense, a unit of meaning which we refer to as a morpheme can only be seen as such in context. For example, within the context of the word elephant, the fragment ant cannot be classed as a morpheme. This is because it is an integral part of that larger morpheme, elephant. However, considered on its own as a word, ant (the insect) is a morpheme. Here it is in a different context: Ants are industrious. Similarly, used as a prefix in a word such as antacid, it is a bound morpheme mean­ing against or opposite.

• In poetry we find that context is crucial to meaning and its effect. If we take Robert Browining's use of disyllabic rhyme as used in 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin', we find the following sequence:

You hope because you're old and obese

To find in the furry civic robe ease.

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  In this context the word 'obese' promotes a humorous and lighthearted effect. However, if our doctor warned us that we were overweight 1 obese j and stood a great risk of heart attack, it would not be such a laughingl matter.
  
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  If it is at all helpful, the idea of context can be illustrated by use of an analogy with colour. |
  
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  A flash of crimson on a white background looks very vivid, and it can] even make the white look slightly pink.
  
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  However, crimson on a black background loses its radiance and almost disappears.
  

Speech may often be quite inexplicit - because the participants in a con­versation can rely on the context for understanding. Speech can not be revised or edited in the same way as writing. Most people unconsciously or deliberately employ a wide range of speech varieties or functional styles in their everyday conversation. Linguists regard speech as primary and writing as secondary. Language changes take place far more rapidly in speech than in writing.

Mistakes in spelling and grammar might be tolerated in casual writing, uch as personal correspondence, but they are generally frowned on in all _{tvpes 0}f public and formal writing. Writing cannot include any non-verbal Jestures _or the communication features which accompany spoken language _ such as facial expression, physical gestures, or tone of voice. The written word has to rely on choice of vocabulary, punctuation and printed emphasis (italics, capital letters) to produce such effects.