Classifications of expressive means and stylistic devices

1.

Classifications of
expressive means and
stylistic devices

2.

1. Expressive means (EMs) and stylistic devices
(SDs)
2. Hellenistic Roman rhetoric system
3. Stylistic theory by G. Leech
4. Classification of EMs and SDs by I. R. Galperin
5. Classification of EMs and SDs by Yu.M.Skrebnev
6. Classification of EMs and SDs by I. V. Arnold

3.

Expressive means of a language are
those linguistic forms and properties
that have the potential to make the
utterance emphatic or expressive.
EMs can be found on all levels phonetic, graphical, morphological,
lexical and syntactical.

4.

Phonetic EMs
vocal pitch
pauses
sentence stress
drawling or staccato pronunciation, etc.

5.

Morphological EMs
• diminutive suffixes (e.g. girlie, dearie)
• nonce-words, etc.

6.

Lexical EMs
• intensifiers, e.g. awfully, nicely, pretty, etc.

7.

Syntactical EMs are special
grammatical forms and syntactical
pattern attributing expressiveness.
E.g.: I do know you! I'm really angry with that
dog of yours! That you should deceive me! If
only I could help you!

8.

Graphical EMs
• capitalisation
• hyphenation
• italics, etc.

9.

A  stylistic  device is a literary model
in which semantic and structural
features are blended so that it
represents a generalised pattern.
SDs can be phonetic, morphological,
lexical and syntactical.
SDs are also referred to as tropes or
figures of speech.

10.

The first school of rhetoric
Gorgius (483-375 BC)
Trasimachus (c. 4 BC)
Aristotle (384-322 BC)

11.

The first theory of style included 3 
subdivisions:
• the choice of words
• word combinations
• figures of speech

12.

Hellenistic Roman Rhetoric System
• tropes
• figures of speech that create rhythm
• types of speech

13.

Tropes
1. Metaphor
2. Puzzle (riddle)
3. Synecdoche
4. Metonymy
5. Catachresis (malapropism)
6. Epithet
7. Periphrasis
8. Hyperbole
9. Antonomasia

14.

Figures of speech that create
rhythm
1. Figures that create rhythm by means of
addition
2. Figures based on compression
3. Figures based on assonance or accord
4. Figures based on opposition

15.

Figures that create rhythm
by means of addition
1) Doubling  (reduplication,  repetition) of
words and sounds.
E. g. Tip­top, helter­skelter, wishy­washy; oh, 
the dreary, dreary moorland.
2) Epenalepsis  (polysyndeton): use of
several conjunctions.
E. g. He  thought,  and  thought,  and  thought;  I 
hadn't  realized  until  then  how  small  the  houses 
were, how small and mean the shops. (Shute)

16.

3) Anaphora: repetition of a word or words
at the beginning of two or more clauses,
sentences or verses.
E.g. My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart 
is not here,
      My heart’s in the Highlands, a­chasing 
the deer… (R. Burns)

17.

4) Enjambment: running on of one thought
into the next line without breaking
the syntactical pattern.
E.g.     April is the cruellest month, breeding
      Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
      Memory and desire, stirring 
      Dull roots with spring rain.
      Winter kept us warm, covering
       Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
       A little life with dried tubers. (T. S. Eliot)

18.

5) Asyndeton: omission of
conjunctions.
E.g. He  ran  upstairs,  rummaged  in  the 
drawers,  found  the  gun  and  rushed  out 
into the cold night.

19.

Figures based on compression
1) Zeugma (syllepsis): a figure by which a
verb, adjective or other part of speech takes two
or more objects each of which belongs to a
different semantic domain.
E.  g.  He  lost  his  hat  and  his  temper,  with 
weeping eyes and hearts.

20.

2) Chiasmus: a reversal in the order of words
in one of two parallel phrases.
E. g. He went to London, to Paris went she.
3) Ellipsis:  omission of words needed to
complete the construction or the sense.
E.g. The  ringleader  was  hanged  and  his 
followers imprisoned.

21.

Figures based on assonance or
accord
1) Equality of colons.
2) Proportions and harmony of colons.

22.

Figures based on opposition
1) Antithesis:  choice or arrangement of
words that emphasizes a contrast.
E. g.   It  was  the  best  of  times,  it  was  the 
worst  of  times,  it  was  the  age  of  wisdom,  it 
was the age of foolishness.
2) Paradiastola: the lengthening of a syllable
regularly short (in Greek poetry).
3) Anastrophe (inversion).
E. g. Me he restored, him he hanged.

23.

Types of speech
flowery (florid)
poetic
normal
dry
scanty
hackneyed
tasteless

24.

Stylistic theory by G. Leech
• Literature is the creative use of language.
• The creative use of language can be equated
with the use of deviant forms of language.
• Deviant features can be paradigmatic and
syntagmatic.

25.

Paradigmatic deviations occur when the
author’s choice from equivalent items
upsets the norms of the language.
 Examples:
“farmyards away”, “a grief ago”, “all sun 
long”
“As Connie had said, she handled just like 
any 
other  aeroplane, except that she had 
better 
manners than most.”

26.

A syntagmatic deviation is based on the
opposite phenomenon: instead of missing
the predictable choice the writer makes the
same choice several times.
E.g. alliteration:
“Robert Rowley rolled a round roll round”
instead of
“Robert turned over a hoop in a circle”

27.

Geoffrey N. Leech. “A Linguistic
Guide to English Poetry”.
LONGMAN, London and New
York, 1991.

28.

Classification of EMs and SDs by
I. R. Galperin
• Phonetic EMs and SDs
• Lexical EMs and SDs
• Syntactical EMs and SDs

29.

Phonetic EMs and SDs
• onomatopoeia
• alliteration
• rhyme
• rhythm

30.

Onomatopoeia (sound imitation)
Direct onomatopoeia: ding­dong,  burr,  bang, 
cuckoo.
Indirect onomatopoeia: “And  the  silken,  sad, 
uncertain  rustling  of  each  purple  curtain.
thrilled  me,  filled  me  with  fantastic  terrors 
never felt before.” (E. A. Poe)

31.

Alliteration - the recurrence of an
initial consonant sound in two or
more words which either follow
each other or appear close enough
to be noticeable.

32.

"The  possessive  instinct  never 
stands still” (J. Galsworthy)
"Deep  into  the  darkness  peering, 
long I stood there wondering, fearing, 
doubting,  dreaming  dreams  no 
mortals  ever  dared  to  dream  before"
(E. A. Poe).

33.

Functions of alliteration
• consolidating effect (creating a compositional
unity)
• heightening the general aesthetic effect (“a
musical accompaniment to the author’s idea”)
• imparting a melodic effect to the utterance
• emphasis and mnemonic effects

34.

Rhyme is the repetition of identical
or similar terminal sound
combinations of words.

35.

Types of rhyme
• Full rhyme (right-might, needless-heedless)
• Incomplete rhyme
A. vowel rhyme (flesh - fresh -press)
B. consonant rhyme (tale - tool)
C. compound or broken rhyme (upon her
honour - won her)
D. eye-rhyme (love - prove, have - grave)

36.

Arrangement of the rhymes within
the stanza:
couplets - aa
triple rhymes - aaa
cross rhymes - abab
frame or ring rhymes - abba
internal rhymes - ‘I bring fresh showers for the
thirsting flowers’ (Shelley)
• etc.

37.

Two main functions of rhyme:
• dissevering
• consolidating

38.

Rhythm is a flow, movement,
procedure, etc., characterized by
basically regular recurrence of
elements or features, as beat, or
accent, in alternation with opposite
or different elements or features.

39.

Lexical EMs and SDs
1. Intentional mixing of the stylistic aspect of
words
2. Interaction of different types of lexical
meaning
3. Intensification of a certain feature of a thing or
phenomenon
4. Peculiar use of set expressions

40.

Intentional mixing of the stylistic
aspect of words
E. g. ‘Will you oblige me by keeping your
trap shut, darling?’ (W. S. Maugham)

41.

Interaction of different types of
lexical meaning
A. Interaction of primary dictionary and
contextually imposed meanings
B. Interaction of primary and derivative logical
meanings
C. Interaction of logical and emotive meanings
D. Interaction of logical and nominal meanings

42.

Interaction of primary dictionary and
contextually imposed meanings
• Metaphor
• Metonymy
• Irony

43.

Metaphor is a transfer of the name of an object
to another object on the basis of similarity,
likeness, affinity of the two objects
E.g. The machine sitting at the desk was no
longer a man; it was a busy New York broker...
(O.Henry).

44.

Components of metaphor
• tenor (обозначаемое, референт)
• vehicle (обозначающее, агент)
• ground (основание)

45.

Types of metaphor
• simple
• complex (sustained, prolonged, extended)
E.g.: Mr. Dombey's cup of satisfaction was so full
at this moment, however, that he felt he could
afford a drop or two of its contents, even to
sprinkle on the dust in the by-path of his little
daughter. (Dickens)

46.

Types of metaphor
(continued)
• dead (trite) - leg of a table, hand of a clock, etc.
• genuine (fresh)
Trite metaphors can be revived, e.g.: Mr. Pickwick
bottled up his vengeance and corked it down.

47.

Metonymy is a transfer of the name
of an object to another object on the
basis of contiguity of the two objects.

48.

Types of relation in metonymy
1) A concrete thing instead of an abstract notion: The
camp, the pulpit and the law For rich men's sons are free.
(Shelley)
2) The container instead of the thing contained: The hall
applauded.
3) The relation of proximity: The round game table was
boisterous and happy. (Dickens)
4) The material instead of the thing made of it: The
marble spoke.
5) The instrument which the doer uses in performing the
action instead of the action or the doer himself: As the
sword is the worst argument that can be used, so should it
be the last. (Byron)

49.

Irony is a stylistic device also based on
the simultaneous realization of two
logical meanings—dictionary and
contextual, but the two meanings stand
in opposition to each other.
E.g. (verbal irony):
It must be delightful to find oneself in a
foreign country without a penny in one's
pocket.

50.

Interaction of primary and derivative
logical meanings
• devices based on polysemantic effect
• zeugma
• pun

51.

Zeugma - combining a polysemantic word
with two or more words each of which
belongs to a different semantic group.
She possessed two false teeth and a sympathetic
heart. (O. Henry)
At noon Mrs. Turpin would get out of bed and
humour, put on kimono, airs and the water to
boil for coffee. (O. Henry)

52.

Pun is ambiguity based on
homonymy or polysemy
OFFICER: What steps would you take if
an enemy tank were approaching
towards you?
SOLDIER: Long ones.
Seven days without water make one weak/week.

53.

Interaction of logical and emotive
meanings
• interjections and exclamatory words
• epithet
• oxymoron

54.

Interjections radiate the emotional
element over the whole of the
utterance provided that they precede it.

55.

"Perhaps  he  won't.  It's  a  long  arduous  road 
he's starting to travel, but it may be that at the 
end  of  it  he'll  find  what  he's  seeking."  "What's 
that?"
"Hasn't  it  occurred  to  you?  It  seems  to  me 
that in what he said to you he indicated it pretty 
plainly. God."
"God!"  she  cried.  But  it  was  an  exclamation 
of  incredulous  surprise.  Our  use  of  the  same 
word,  but  in  such  a  different  sense,  had  a 
comic effect, so that we were obliged to laugh. 
But Isabel immediately grew serious again and 
I felt in her whole attitude something like fear.

56.

Epithet – a word, phrase or clause which is
used attributively and which discloses an
individual, emotionally coloured attitude of
the author towards the object they describe
by emphasizing a certain property or
feature.

57.

Semantic classification of epithets
1. Epithets associated with the noun point
at some feature inherent in the object
(dark forest, careful attention)
2. Epithets unassociated with the noun attributes used to characterize the object
by adding a feature not inherent in it,
more unexpected and unusual (heartburning smile, voiceless sands)

58.

Structural classification of epithets
• simple: wild wind
• compound: heart-burning sigh, cloud-shapen giant
• phrase or sentence epithets: There is a sort of Ohwhat-a-wicked-world-this-is-and-how-I-wish-I-coulddo-something-to-make-it-better-and-nobler expression
about Montmorency that has been known to bring the
tears into the eyes of pious old ladies and gentlemen.
(Jerome K. Jerome)
• reversed: the shadow of a smile, a devil of a job
• transferred: a sleepless pillow, a disapproving finger,
nervous cigarette-butts

59.

Oxymoron is created by ascribing a
property to an object incompatible,
inconsistent with that property. It is a
logical collision of words syntactically
connected but incongruent in their
meaning.
E.g. sweet sorrow, deafening silence

60.

Interaction of logical and nominal
meanings
Antonomasia - the use of the name of a
historical, literary, mythological or biblical
personage applied to a person whose
characteristic features resemble those of the
well-known original.
E. g. Brutus (a traitor), Don Juan (a ladies’
man), Mr. Know­All, etc.

61.

EMs and SDs based on the
intensification of a certain feature of a
thing or phenomenon
simile
periphrasis
euphemism
hyperbole

62.

Simile is an explicit statement
concerning the similarity, the
affinity of two different notions.
• That fellow is like a bear.
• She is as beautiful as a flower.
• My heart is like a singing bird.

63.

1. She can sing like a professional
actress.
2. She sings like a nightingale.

64.

Periphrasis - a description of an
object instead of its name
• Delia was studying under Rosenstock - you
know his repute as a disturber of the piano
keys. (O. Henry)
• my better half (my wife)
• the fair sex (women)

65.

Euphemism - a variety of
periphrasis, a word or phrase used
to replace an unpleasant word or
expression by a conventionally
more acceptable one.

66.

Hyperbole - a deliberate overstatement
or exaggeration of a feature essential
(unlike periphrasis) to the object or
phenomenon.
• He was so tall that I was not sure he had a face
(O. Henry)

67.

EMs and SDs based on the peculiar
use of set expressions
The cliche
Proverbs and sayings
Epigrams
Allusions
Decomposition of set phrases

68.

A cliche is generally defined as an
expression that has become
hackneyed and trite.

69.

Proverbs are brief statements
showing in condensed form the
accumulated life experience of the
community and serving as
conventional practical symbols for
abstract ideas. They are usually
didactic and image bearing.

70.

"Come!" he said, "milk's spilt." (Galsworthy)
"But to all that moving experience there had
been a shadow (a dark lining to the silver cloud),
insistent and plain, which disconcerted her…”
(Maugham)
"We were dashed uncomfortable in the frying
pan, but we should have been a damned sight
worse off in the fire.” (Maugham)
"You know which side the law's buttered."
(Galsworthy)

71.

Epigrams are terse, witty, pointed
statements, showing the ingenious turn of
mind of the originator. They always have a
literary-bookish air about them.
An epigram is a stylistic device akin to a
proverb, the only difference being that
epigrams are coined by individuals whose
names we know, while proverbs are the
coinage of the people.

72.

Decomposition of set phrases
It was raining cats and dogs, and two kittens and
a puppy landed on my window-sill. (Chesterton)

73.

Syntactical EMs and SDs
1. Compositional patterns of syntactical
arrangement.
2. Particular ways of combining parts of the
utterance.
3. Particular use of colloquial constructions.
4. Stylistic use of structural meaning.

74.

Compositional patterns of syntactical
arrangement
1. Stylistic inversion
2. Detached construction
3. Parallel construction
4. Chiasmus
5. Repetition
6. Enumeration
7. Suspense
8. Climax (gradation)
9. Antithesis

75.

Stylistic inversion: five main types
1. “Talent Mr. Micawber has; capital Mr. Micawber has not.”
(Dickens)
2. “With fingers weary and worn…” (Th. Hood)
“Once upon a midnight dreary…” (E. A. Poe)
3. a) “A good generous prayer it was.” (Mark Twain)
b) “Rude am I in my speech…” (Shakespeare)
4. “Eagerly I wished the morrow.” (Poe)
“My dearest daughter, at your feet I fall.” (Dryden)
“A tone of most extraordinary comparison Miss Tox said it
in.” (Dickens)
5. “In went Mr. Pickwick.” (Dickens)
“Down dropped the breeze…” (Coleridge)

76.

Detached construction,
parenthesis
"Steyne rose up, grinding his teeth, pale, and with
fury in his eyes." (Thackeray)
"Sir Pitt came in first, very much flushed, and
rather unsteady in his gait." (Thackeray)
"June stood in front, fending off this idle curiosity
— a little bit of a thing, as somebody said, 'all hair
and spirit'..."(Galsworthy)

77.

Parallel construction (partial and
complete) - identical, or similar,
syntactical structure in two or more
sentences or parts of a sentence in
close succession

78.

“There were ... real silver spoons to stir the
tea with, and real china cups to drink it out of,
and plates of the same to hold the cakes and
toast in." (Dickens)
"It is the mob that labour in your fields and
serve in your houses—that man your navy and
recruit your army,—that have enabled you to
defy all the world, and can also defy you when
neglect and calamity have driven them to
despair." (Byron)

79.

Chiasmus - a reversed parallel
construction
"As high as we have mounted in delight
In our dejection do we sink as low."
(Wordsworth)
"Down dropped the breeze,
The sails dropped down" (Coleridge)
"The register of his burial was signed by the
clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker and the
chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. (Dickens)

80.

Repetition
Compositional patterns
Anaphora
"For that was it! Ignorant of the long and stealthy march
of passion, and of the state to which it had reduced Fleur;
ignorant of how Soames had watched her, ignorant of
Fleur's reckless desperation... — ignorant of all this,
everybody felt aggrieved." (Galsworthy)
Epiphora
"I am exactly the man to be placed in a superior position
in such a case as that. I am above the rest of mankind, in
such a case as that. I can act with philosophy in such a
case as that. (Dickens)

81.

Framing
"Poor doll’s dressmaker! How often so dragged down by hands
that should have raised her up; how often so misdirected
when losing her way on the eternal road and asking guidance.
Poor, little doll's dressmaker". (Dickens)
Anadiplosis
"Freeman and slave... earned on an uninterrupted, now
hidden, now open fight, a fight that' each time ended, either
in a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the
common ruin of the contending classes."(Marx, Engels)
Chain repetition
"A smile would come into Mr. Pickwick's face: the smile
extended into a laugh, the laugh into a roar, and the roar
became general." (Dickens)

82.

Root­repetition
"To live again in the youth of the young.”
(Galsworthy)
"He loves a dodge for its own sake; being...—the
dodgerest of all the dodgers" (Dickens)
Synonymical repetition
"...are there not capital punishments sufficient in
your statutes? Is there not blood enough upon your
penal code!" (Byron)

83.

Functions of repetition
To intensify the emotion:
"Stop!"—she cried, "Don't tell me! I don't want to
hear, I don't want to hear what you've come for! I don't
want to hear." (Galsworthy)
To express monotony:
"What has my life been? Fag and grind, fag and grind.
Turn the wheel, turn the wheel.” (Dickens)
To express reiteration or continuity:
"Fledgeby knocked and rang, and Fledgeby rang and
knocked, but no one came.”
"He played the tune over and over again.”

84.

Background repetition is sometimes used
to stress the ordinarily unstressed elements of
the utterance:
"I am attached to you. But I can't consent 
and won't  consent  and  I  never  did consent 
and  I  never  will  consent  to  be  lost  in  you."
(Dickens)

85.

Enumeration is a stylistic device by which
separate things, objects, properties, actions
are named one by one so that they produce a
chain and display semantic homogeneity,
remote though it may seem.
E.  g.: ”The  principal  production  of 
these  towns...  appear  to  be  soldiers, 
sailors,  Jews,  chalk,  shrimps,  officers 
and 
dock­yard 
men.”(Dickens, 
"Pickwick Papers")

86.

Suspense is a compositional device which consists
in arranging the sentence in such a way that the less
important, descriptive parts are at the beginning, and
the main idea is withheld till the end.
“ If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
And make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can dream and not make dreams your master, 
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim,
Yours is the earth and everything that's in it,... 
And which is more, you'll be a Man, my son.” 
(R. Kipling)

87.

Climax  (gradation) is an arrangement of
sentences (or of the homogeneous parts of one
sentence) which secures a gradual increase in
significance, importance, or emotional tension
in the utterance.
Types of climax
1) Logical
2) Emotional
3) Quantitative

88.

Logical climax is based on the relative importance of
the component parts looked at from the point of view
of the concepts embodied in them.
"Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with 
gladsome looks, 'My dear Scrooge, how are you? 
When will you come to see me?' No beggars 
implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked 
him what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever 
once in all his life inquired the way to such and 
such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind men's 
dogs appeared to know him, and when they saw 
him coming on, would tug their owners into 
doorways and up courts; and then would wag their 
tails, as though they said, 'No eye at all is better 
than an evil eye, dark master!’" (Ch. Dickens)

89.

Emotional climax is based on the
relative emotional tension produced by
words with emotive meaning.
"It was a lovely city, a beautiful city, 
a fair city, a veritable gem of a city.”

90.

Quantitative climax is an evident increase
in the volume of the corresponding
concepts.
"They  looked  at  hundreds  of  houses;  they 
climbed  thousands  of  stairs;  they  inspected 
innumerable kitchens." (Maugham)
"Little by little, bit by bit, and day by day, and 
year by year the baron got the worst of some 
disputed question." (Dickens)

91.

Anticlimax
"In days of yore, a mighty rumbling was 
heard in a Mountain. It was said to be in 
labour, and multitudes flocked together, 
from far and near, to see what it would 
produce. After a long expectation and many 
wise conjectures from the bystanders—out 
popped a Mouse!"

92.

Antithesis
"Youth is lovely, age is lonely,
Youth is fiery, age is frosty…” (Longfellow)
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it 
was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it 
was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, 
if  was  the  season  of  Light,  it  was  the  season  of 
Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of 
despair, We had everything before us, we had nothing 
before  us, we  were  all  going  direct  to Heaven,  we are 
all going direct the other way..." (Dickens)

93.

Functions of antithesis
rhythm-forming
copulative
dissevering
comparative

94.

Particular ways of combining parts
of the utterance
1. Asyndeton
2. Polysyndeton
3. Gap-sentence link

95.

Asyndeton - a deliberate omission of the
connective where it is generally expected to
be according to the norms of the literary
language.
"Soames  turned  away;  he  had  an  utter 
disinclination for talk like one standing before 
an  open  grave,  watching  a  coffin  slowly 
lowered." (Galsworthy)
"Bicket  did  not  answer  his  throat  felt  too 
dry." (Galsworthy)

96.

Polysyndeton - connecting sentences, or
phrases, or syntagms, or words by using
connectives (mostly conjunctions and
prepositions) before each component part.
"The  heaviest  rain,  and  snow,  and  hail,  and  sleet, 
could  boast  of  the  advantage  over  him  in  only  one 
respect." (Dickens)
"Should you ask me, whence these stories?
Whence these legends and traditions, With the odours 
of the forest, With the dew, and damp of meadows, With 
the curling smoke of wigwams, With the rushing of great 
rivers, With their frequent repetitions,…" (Longfellow)

97.

Functions of polysyndeton:
rhythmical
disintegrating
consolidating
expressing sequence

98.

Gap-sentence link is found if the connection
between two ideas is not immediately apparent
and it requires a certain mental effort to bridge
the semantic gap.
"She  and  that  fellow  ought  to  be  the 
sufferers, and they were in Italy" (Galsworthy)
"It  was  not  Capetown,  where  people  only 
frowned  when  they  saw  a  black  boy  and  a 
white  girl.  But  here...  And  he  loved  her" 
(Abrahams)

99.

Particular use of colloquial
constructions
1. Ellipsis
2. Break-in-the-narrative
3. Question-in-the-narrative
4. Represented speech

100.

Ellipsis
"Thrice happy he who, after survey
of the good company, can win a corner.” (Byron)
   "Nothing so difficult as a beginning."

101.

Break-in-the-narrative (aposiopesis) - a
stopping short for rhetorical effect
"You just come home or I'll …”
"Then, Mamma, I hardly like to let the words cross 
my lips, but they have wicked, wicked attractions out 
there—like  dancing  girls  that—that  charm  snakes 
and  dance  without—Miss  Moir  with  downcast  eyes, 
broke  off  significantly  and  blushed,  whilst  the  down 
on her upper lip quivered modestly." (Cronin)
“It depends”
“Good intentions but…”

102.

Question-in-the-narrative - a question that is
asked (and, as a rule, answered) by one and the
same person, usually the author.
“For what is left the poet here?
For Greeks a blush—for Greece a tear.” (Byron)
"How long must it go on? How long must we suffer?
Where is the end? What is the end?" (Norris)

103.

Represented speech
“A  maid  came  in  now  with  a  blue  gown  very  thick 
and  soft.  Could  she  do  anything  for  Miss  Freeland? 
No, thanks, she could not, only, did she know where 
Mr. Freeland's room was?” (Galsworthy)
"An  idea  had  occurred  to  Soames.  His  cousin 
Jolyon was Irene's trustee, the first step would be to 
go  down  and  see  him  at  Robin  Hill.  Robin  Hill!  The 
odd—the very odd feeling those words brought back. 
Robin Hill—the house Bosinney had built for him and 
Irene—the  house  they  had  never  lived  in—the  fatal 
house! And Jolyon lived there now! H'm!" (Galsworthy)

104.

Stylistic use of structural meaning
1. Rhetorical questions
2. Litotes

105.

Rhetorical question reshapes the grammatical
meaning of the interrogative sentence. Thus there is
an interplay of two structural meanings: 1) that of
the question and 2) that of the statement (either
affirmative or negative).
They are utterances in the form of questions which
pronounce judgements and also express various
kinds of modal shades of meaning, as doubt,
challenge, scorn, irony and so on.
E. g.: ”Who is here so vile that will not love his 
country?" (Shakespeare)

106.

Litotes is a deliberate understatement consisting of a
peculiar use of negative constructions.
1) The negation plus noun or adjective serves to
establish a positive feature in a person or thing:
He is no coward.—He is a brave man.
"He was no gentle lamb, and the part of second 
fiddle would never do for the high­pitched 
dominance of his nature." (Jack London)
2) A construction with two negations:
"Soames, with his lips and his squared chin was 
not unlike a bull dog.” (Galsworthy)

107.

Classification of expressive means 
and stylistic devices by Y. M.Skrebnev
Y. M. Skrebnev. Fundamentals of English
Stylistics. M., 1994

108.

STYLISTICS
PARADIGMATIC
SYNTAGMATIC
PHONETICS
PHONETICS
MORPHOLOGY
MORPHOLOGY
LEXICOLOGY
LEXICOLOGY
SYNTAX
SYNTAX
SEMASIOLOGY
SEMASIOLOGY

109.

Paradigmatic phonetics actually describes
phonographical stylistic features of a
written text.
• graphons - graphic means to reproduce the phonetic
peculiarities of individual speech or dialect, e.g.:
Thquire!... Your thervant! Thith ith a bad pieth of
bithnith, thith ith… (Ch. Dickens)
• Other graphic means to emphasise the «unheard»
phonetic characteristics such as the pitch of voice,
the stress, and other melodic features, e.g. italics,
capitalisation, repetition of letters.
• Onomatopoeia

110.

Syntagmatic phonetics deals with prosodic
features (intonation, sentence stress, tempo) and
the interaction of speech sounds.
alliteration
assonance
paronomasia
rhythm and meter
rhyme

111.

Assonance is an agreement (identity or
similarity) of vowels in conjunction with
different consonant sounds.
E.g.: …Tell this soul, with sorrow laden, if
within the distant Aiden, / I shall clasp a
sainted maiden, whom the angels name
Lenore - / Clasp a rare and radiant
maiden, whom the angels name Lenore?
(Poe)

112.

Paronomasia is co-occurrence of paronyms.
A paronym in linguistics may refer to two different things:
1. A word that is related to another word and derives from the same
root (policy - politics, human - humane).
2. Words which are almost homonyms, but have slight differences in
spelling or pronunciation and have different meanings (affect and
effect).
And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door; (…)
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore! (E. Poe)
But still he strummed on, and his mind wandered in and out of poultry
and politics, Old Forsyte, Fleur, Foggartism and the Ferrar girl – like a
man in a maelstrom whirling round with his head just above water. (J.
Galsworthy)

113.

Paradigmatic morphology observes the stylistic
potentials of grammatical forms which G. Leech
would describe as deviant.
E. g.:
historical present
What else do I remember? Let me see.
There comes out of the cloud our house... (Dickens)
depersonification
«Where  did  you  find  it?»  asked  Mord  Em'ly  of 
Miss Gilliken with a satirical accent.
«Who  are  you  calling  "it"?»  demanded  Mr.  Barden 
aggressively. «P'raps you'll kindly call me 'im and not it». 
(Partridge)

114.

Syntagmatic morphology deals
with co-occurrence of morphemes
and the stylistic effect created by it.

115.

Paradigmatic lexicology subdivides
English vocabulary into stylistic layers.
Positive/elevated/superneutral
poetic;
official;
professional.
Bookish, archaic 
Neutral
Negative/degraded/subneutral
colloquial; neologisms;
jargon;
slang;
nonce­words;
vulgar words (lexical and stylistic vulgarisms).

116.

Syntagmatic lexicology studies the «word-andcontext» relations, e.g. those connected with cooccurrence of words of various stylistic
colourings and various instances of intentional
and unintentional lexical mixtures.
E.g.: Will you oblige me by keeping your trap
shut, my dear?
Syntagmatic lexicology also studies simple lexical
repetition.
E.g.: He thought and thought and thought it over
and over and over.

117.

Paradigmatic syntax
1. Sentences with deviations in the quantitative
characteristics of sentence structure: (A) with the
absence of elements which are obligatory, (B) with
the excess of non-essential elements.
2. Sentences with deviations in the word order.
3. Sentences with revaluation of syntactical meaning.
4. Sentences where various types of syntactical
connections are viewed stylistically.

118.

Sentences with deviations in the quantitative
characteristics of sentence structure: (A) with the
absence of elements which are obligatory
ellipsis
aposiopesis
suppression
one-member nominative sentences
morphologically incomplete sentences
asyndeton

119.

Ellipsis
“Where is he?” – “Out in the garden.”
«He became one of the prominent men of the 
House. Spoke clearly and modestly, and was 
never too long. Held the House where men of 
higher abilities «bored» it» (Collins).

120.

Aposiopesis and suppression
KEITH  (letting go her arms):  My  God!  If  the 
police come… find me here…  (He dashes to the
door. Then stops). (Galsworthy)
You heard what the guy said: get out or else.
(Gardner)

121.

One-member nominative sentences:
London. Fog everywhere. Implacable
November weather. (Ch. Dickens)
Morphologically 
incomplete 
sentences:
I  been  waiting  here  all  morning… 
(Robbins)
Fine class of friends you pick. (Robbins)

122.

Sentences with deviations in the quantitative
characteristics of sentence structure: (B) with
the excess of non-essential elements
1. Repetition of sentence parts
2. Syntactic tautology ­ (A) prolepsis, (B) 
tautology in appended statements):
A. Prolepsis: Miss Tillie Webster, she slept forty 
days and nights without waking up. (O. Henry)
B. Tautology in appended statements: I know 
what the like of you are, I do. (B. Shaw)
You’ve made a nice mess, you have. (Jerome)
3. Polysyndeton

123.

Sentences with revaluation of
syntactical meaning
Quasi­affirmative  sentences:  Isn't  that 
too bad? = That is too bad.
Quasi­interrogative  sentences:  Here  you 
are  to  write  down  your  age  and  birthplace  =
How old are you? Where were you born?
Quasi­negative  sentences:  Did  I  say  a 
word  about  the  money?  (Shaw) = I did  not 
say...
Quasi­imperative  sentences:  Here! 
Quick! — Come here! Be quick!

124.

Sentences where various types of syntactical
connections are viewed stylistically
• «Smither should choose it for her at the stores ­ nice 
and dappled» (Galsworthy)
• «Talent, Mr. Micawber has, capital, Mr. Micawber has 
not» (Dickens)
• «...he  was  struck  by  the  thought  (what  devil’s 
whisper? ­ what evil hint of an evil spirit?) ­ supposing 
that  he  and  Roberta  ­  no,  say  he  and  Sondra  ­  (no, 
Sondra could swim so well and so could he) ­ he and 
Roberta were in a small boat somewhere...» (Dreiser)
• «Here  is  a  long  passage  ­  what  an  enormous 
prospective  I  make  of  it!  ­  leading  from  Peggoty  ’s 
kitchen to the front door» (Dickens)

125.

Syntagmatic syntax deals with a chain of
sentences, the sequence of sentences
constituting a text
parallelism
anaphora
epiphora
framing
anadiplosis
chiasmus

126.

Parallelism  is a structural repetition of
sentences though often accompanied by the lexical
repetition
E. 
g.
The 
cock 
is 
crowing, 
The stream is flowing... (Wordsworth)
anaphora  (identity of beginnings, initial
elements).
E.  g. If  only  little  Edward  were  twenty,  old 
enough  to  marry  well  and  fend  for  himself, 
instead  often.  If  only  it  were  not  necessary  to 
provide  a  dowary  for  his  daughter.  If  only  his 
own debts were less. (Rutherfurd)

127.

Epiphora  (opposite of the anaphora, identical
elements at the end of sentences, paragraphs, chapters,
stanzas).
E. g. For all averred, I had killed the bird. That made 
the breeze to blow. Ah wretch! Said they, the bird to 
slay, That made the breeze to blow! (Coleridge)
Framing  (repetition of some element at the
beginning and at the end of a sentence, paragraph or
stanza).
E. g. Never wonder. By means of addition, 
subtraction, multiplication and division, settle 
everything somehow, and never wonder. (Dickens)

128.

Anadiplosis  (the final element of one sentence,
paragraph, stanza is repeated in the initial part of the
next
sentence,
paragraph,
stanza.
E. g. Three  fishers  went  sailing  out  into  the  West. 
Out into the West, as the sun went down. (Kingsley)
Chiasmus  (parallelism reversed, two parallel
syntactical constructions contain a reversed order of
their members).
E.  g. That  he  sings  and  he  sings,  and  for  ever 
sings he— I love my Love and my Love loves me!
(Coleridge)

129.

Paradigmatic semasiology deals with
transfer of names or what are traditionally
known as tropes
FIGURES OF REPLACEMENT
• Figures of quantity: hyperbole,
understatement (including litotes)
• Figures of quality: metaphoric and
metonymic group
• Figure of contrast: irony

130.

Syntagmatic semasiology deals with semantic
relationships expressed at the length of a whole
text and studies types of names used for linear
arrangement of meanings
FIGURES OF CO-OCCURRENCE
• Figures of identity: simile, quasi-identity,
synonymous replacement
• Figures of inequality: specifying (clarifying)
synonyms, climax, anti-climax, zeugma, pun,
disguised tautology
• Figure of contrast: oxymoron, antithesis

131.

FIGURES OF QUANTITY
• hyperbole - a deliberate understatement, e.g.: One after
another those people lay down on the ground to laugh –
and two of them died. (Twain)
• understatement (meiosis) - toning down, understating
the idea, e.g.: "We've got a few lights on Broadway, don't
you think, Mr. Platt?”
“She sang listlessly as if she were bored with the whole
thing, and the applause she collected could have been
packed into a thimble, without overflowing." (Chase)

132.

Litotes - expressing an idea by means of
negating the opposite idea
• "... she was not unlike Morgiana in the 'Forty Thieves'."
(Dickens)
• "And Captain Trevelyan was not overpleased about it."
(Christie)
• "A chiselled, ruddy face completed the notunhandsome picture." (Pendelton)
• "You wouldn't exactly call Warley heavily
industrialized." (Braine)
• "His suit... had... that elasticity disciplined only by firstrate tailoring which isn't bought for very much
under thirty guineas." (Braine)

133.

FIGURES OF QUALITY
METONYMIC GROUP
• metonymy
• synecdoche
• periphrasis
• metonymic antonomasia

134.

FIGURES OF QUALITY
METAPHORIC GROUP
• metaphor
personification
allusion
metaphoric antonomasia
allegory

135.

Personification is a particular case of
metaphor. It consists in attributing life and
mind to inanimate things.
FORMAL MARKERS OF PERSONIFICATION
• Capitalization: «No sleep till morn, when Youth and
Pleasure meet To chase the glowing Hours with flying
feet». (Byron)
• Personal pronouns “he” and “she”: «Then Night, like
some great loving mother, gently lays her hand at our
fevered head... and, though she does not speak, we
know what she would say...» (Jerome).
• Direct address: «О stretch by reign, fair Peace, from
shore to shore Till conquest cease, and slavery be no
more». (A. Pope)

136.

An allusion is an indirect reference, by word
or phrase, to a historical, literary,
mythological, biblical fact made in the course
of speaking or writing.
• “Don’t act like a Romeo in front of her.”
• The rise in poverty will unlock the Pandora’s
box of crimes.
• “This place is like a Garden of Eden.”
• “Hey! Guess who the new Newton of our
school is?”

137.

Metaphorical antonomasia is the use of the
name of a historical, literary, mythological or
biblical personage applied to a person whose
characteristic features resemble those of the wellknown original.
E.  g. Brutus (a traitor), Don  Juan (a ladies’
man)

138.

Allegory is a term in literature, or even in
art in general (painting, sculpture). It
means expressing abstract ideas through
concrete pictures.
E.g. fairy-tales, fables, philosophical or
satirical novels (Gulliver’s Travels by
Jonathan Swift)

139.

FIGURE OF CONTRAST
IRONY
Irony is a transfer based upon the opposition of the two
notions: the notion named and the notion meant.
E. g. “Never mind,” said the stranger, cutting the address
very short, "said enough—no more; smart chap that cabman
—handled his fives well; but if I'd been your friend in the
green jemmy—damn me—punch his head— God I would—
pig's whisper— pieman too,—no gammon.”
“This coherent speech was interrupted by the entrance of
the Rochester coachman, to announce that…” (Dickens)

140.

Syntagmatic semasiology deals with semantic
relationships expressed at the length of a whole
text and studies types of names used for linear
arrangement of meanings
FIGURES OF CO-OCCURRENCE
• Figures of identity: simile, quasi-identity,
synonymous replacement
• Figures of inequality: specifying (clarifying)
synonyms, climax, anti-climax, zeugma, pun,
disguised tautology
• Figure of contrast: oxymoron, antithesis

141.

FIGURES OF IDENTITY
Simile - an explicit statement of partial identity: affinity, likeness,
similarity of 2 objects, e. g. She sings like a nightingale.
Quasi-identity - a figure intermediate between metaphor and
simile, or between metonymy and simile, with the structure
TENOR IS VEHICLE.
E.g.: She is a real angel, Your brother is an ass (metaphoric quasiidentities), She was all angles and bones (Lee) (metonymic quasiidentity).
Synonymous replacement - the use of synonyms or synonymous
phrases to avoid monotony or as situational substitutes.
E. g.: He brought home numberless prizes. He told his mother
countless stories. (Thackeray)

142.

FIGURES OF INEQUALITY
Clarifying (specifying) synonyms - synonymous repetition used to
characterise different aspects of the same referent), e.g. You
undercut, sinful, insidious hog! (O'Henry)
Climax - gradation of emphatic elements growing in strength),
e. g. What difference if it rained, hailed, blew, snowed, cycloned?
(O'Henry).
Anti-climax (bathos, back gradation)— an unexpectedly weak or
contrastive element that makes the statement humorous or
ridiculous), e. g. The woman who could face the very devil himself
or a mouse—goes all to pieces in front of a flash of lightning.
(Twain)
Zeugma - a combination of unequal, or incompatible words based
on the economy of syntactical units).
E. g. She dropped a tear and her pocket handkerchief. (Dickens)

143.

FIGURES OF INEQUALITY
(continued)
Pun (play upon words based on polysemy or
homonymy).
Disguised tautology (semantic difference in formally
coincidental parts of a sentence, repetition here does
not emphasise the idea but carries a different
information in each of the two parts).
E. g.:
And that’s that…
For East is East, and West is West... (Kipling)

144.

FIGURES OF CONTRAST
Oxymoron - a logical collision of seemingly
incompatible words.
E. g.: We were fellow strangers. (G. Greene)
Antithesis - anti-statement, active confrontation
of notions used to show the contradictory
nature of the subject described.
E. g.: His fees were high, his lessons were light.
(O'Henry)

145.

Арнольд И. В. Стилистика. Современый
английский язык. Учебник для вузов. М., 2010
• Level-based classification of EMs and SDs
(lexical, morphological, syntactical, phonetic
and graphical level).
• A great emphasis is laid on decoding stylistics,
the terminology from the theory of
information is applied.
• SDs and EMs are studied on the basis of
oppositions.
• Text stylistics, context and intertextuality are
discussed.