Lecture 1

1. Stylistics

Literature:
1) I.R. Galperin. Stylistics
2) И.В. Арнольд. Стилистика.
Современный английский язык
3) Ю.М. Скребнев. Основы
стилистики английского языка
4) V.A. Kukharenko. Seminars in style

2. Lecture 1 THE SUBJECT MATTER OF STYLISTICS Items for discussion:

Subject matter of stylistics and its
connection with other disciplines
The problem of style
Stylistic classification of the English
vocabulary

3.

The English vocabulary, its main
layers, their aspects.
The standard English vocabulary.
Neutral words
Literary vocabulary, its constituent
parts.
Colloquial vocabulary, its
constituent parts.

4.

stylistic phonetics (phenomena of sound
arrangement of both prose and verse, i.e.
rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, etc);
stylistic morphology (stylistic potentialities of
different grammatical categories and parts
of speech);
stylistic lexicology (stylistic functions of
words, expressive, emotive, evaluative
potentialities of words and their stylistic
reference, etc);
stylistic syntax (expressive potentialities of
word order, different types of sentence
structures and syntactical ties, etc).

5. Stylistics deals with:

the investigations of the inventory of special
language media which secure the desirable
effect of the utterance - stylistic devices (SD)
and expressive means (EM)
the investigation of certain types of text functional styles of language (FS)

6.

The word STYLE (Latin STILUS, Greek
STYLOS) meant a short stick sharp at one
end and flat at the other used by the
Romans for writing on wax tablets.
It is a set of characteristics distinguishing
one author from another.
Style belongs to the plane of expression
and not to the plane of content.
Style is specificity of sublanguage.

7.

The notion of NORM refers to the literary
language and implies conventionally
accepted characteristics of what is
evaluated.
e.g. I haven’t ever done anything.
I ain’t never done nothing.
lass
chicken

8. The word-stock of the English language is divided into three main layers:

the literary layer
the neutral layer
the colloquial layer

9.

Poetic
words
Archaic
and
historical
words
Author’s
coinages
(noncewords)
Special literary-bookish
vocabulary
Terms
Common
standard-literary vocabulary
Barbarisms
and
foreignisms
Common Col..voc.
Neutral Words
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Common English voc. ююююю
ююю
ээ
Common standard-colloquial
vocabulary
Noncewords
Professionalisms
рр
Special colloquial
(non-standard)
vocabulary
Slang
Vulgarisms
Dialectal
words
Jargonisms

10. The literary vocabulary:

common literary;
terms and learned words;
poetic words;
archaic words;
barbarisms and foreign words;
literary coinages including
nonce-words.

11. The colloquial vocabulary:

common colloquial words;
slang;
jargonisms;
professional words;
dialectal words;
vulgar words;
colloquial coinages.

12. The standard English vocabulary =

The common literary words
+ the neutral words + the
common colloquial words

13. Archaisms

1) Archaic words proper
thou and its forms thee, thy and thine;
-(e)th instead of -(e)s (he maketh);
2) Historisms
Vassal, falconet
3) Poetic words
Steed (horse), woe (sorrow)

14. Barbarisms:

chic (=stylish);
bon mot (=a clever witty saying);
en passant (= in passing);
ad infinitum (= to infinity).

15. Neologisms

stylistic coinages:
- tomatorama, bananarama (a
sensational sale of bananas,
tomatoes);
- blends such as avigation
(aviation+navigation), rockoon
(rocket+balloon)

16. Nonce-words:

"Let me say in the beginning that even if
I wanted to avoid Texas I could not, for I
am wived in Texas, and mother-inlawed, and uncled, and aunted, and
cousined within an inch of my life."
(J. Steinbeck)
"sevenish" (around seven o'clock);
"morish" (a little more) (A. Christie).

17. Neologisms coined by contractions and abbreviations:

TRUD (= time remaining until dive);
laser (= light amplification by stimulated
emission of radiation);
Unesco (United Nations Education and
Science Organization);
jeep (GP=General Purpose car).

18. Slang:

to take stock in — 'to be interested in,
attach importance, give credence to'
bread-basket — 'the stomach'
to do a flit — 'to quit one's flat or
lodgings at night without paying the
rent or board'
rot — 'nonsense!'

19. Jargonisms:

grease = 'money'; loaf = 'head'; a tiger
hunter = 'a gambler'; a lexer = 'a student
preparing for a law course‘;
Matlo(w)—'a sailor' (from the French word
'matelot')
Man and wife—'a knife' (rhyming slang)

20. Professionalisms:

tin-fish (=submarine);
block-buster (= a bomb especially
designed to destroy blocks of big
buildings);
piper (=a specialist who decorates
pastry with the use of a cream-pipe);
a midder case (=a midwifery case);
outer (=a knockout blow).

21. Dialectisms:

lass = 'a girl or a beloved girl‘;
lad = 'a boy or a young man‘;
daft (from the Scottish and the
northern dialect) = 'of unsound
mind, silly';
fash (Scottish) = 'trouble‘;

22. Vulgarisms:

expletives and swear words of
an abusive character ('damn',
'bloody', 'to hell' 'goddam‘);
obscene words (four-letter words
banned
in
any
form
of
intercourse as being indecent)