1

General Notes on Styles and Stylistics

Stylistics - branch of general linguistics. It has
mainly with two tasks: St-s is regarded as a lang-ge
science which deals with the results of the act of
communication. There are 2 basic objects of st-s: stylistic devices and figures of speech; - functional
styles. Branches of st-s: - Lexical st-s studies
functions of direct and figurative meanings, also the
way contextual meaning of a word is realized in the
text. L.S. deals with various types of connotations
expressive, evaluative, emotive; neologisms, dialectal
words and their behavior in the text. - Grammatical
st-s is subdivided into morphological and
syntactical. Morph-l s. views stylistic potential of
gram-l categories of dif-t parts of speech. Potential of
the number, pronouns- Syntactical s. studies
syntactic, expressive means, word order and word
combinations, dif-t types of sentences and types of
syntactic connections. Also deals with origin of the
text, its division on the paragraphs, dialogs, direct
and indirect speech, the connection of the sentences,
types of sentences. - Phonostylistics phonetical
organization of prose and poetic texts. Here are
included rhythm, rhythmical structure, rhyme,
alliteration, assonance and correlation of the sound
form and meaning. Also studies deviation in
normative pronunciation. - Functional S (s. of

decoding) deals with all subdivisions of the

language and its possible use (newspaper, colloquial
style). Its object - correlation of the message and
communicative situation.
There is a widely held view that style is the
correspondence between thought and expression. The
notion is based on the assumption ; that of the two
functions of language, (language is said to have two
functions: it serves as a means of communication and
also as a means of shaping one's thoughts). The first
function is called communicative, the second expressive, the latter finds its proper materialization
in strings of sentences especially arranged to convey
the ideas and also to get the desired response.
we may distinguish the following styles within
the English literary language: 1) the belles- letters
style; 2) the publicistic style; 3) the newspaper style;
4} the scientific prose style; 5) the style of official
documents and presumably some others
2
Expressive Means and stylistic devices
Stylistics studies the special media of language which
are called stylistic devices and expressive means.
Expressive means and stylistic devices form three
large groups of phonetic, lexical, syntactical means
and devices. Each group is further subdivided

according to the principle, purpose and function of a

mean or a device in an utterance. Stylistics studies
the types of texts which are distinguished by the
pragmatic aspect of the communication and are
called functional styles of language. Expressive
means of a language are those phonetic,
morphological,
word-building,
lexical,
phraseological and syntactical forms which exist in
language-as-a-system for the purpose of logical
and/or emotional intensification of the utterance.
These intensifying forms have special functions in
making the utterances emphatic. A stylistic device is
a conscious and intentional intensification of some
typical structural and/or semantic property of a
language unit (neutral or expressive) promoted to a
generalized status and thus becoming a generative
model. A stylistic device is an abstract pattern, a
mould into which any content can be poured.
3.
The problem of English literary language
4.
A brief outline of the development of the English
vocabulary
There is no hard and fast division between the
literary and non-literary language.
They are
interdependent. The literary language constantly
enriches its vocabulary and forms from the non-

literary (vernacular, colloquial). It also adopts some

of its syntactical peculiarities and by doing so gives
them the status of norms of the literary language.
The norm of usage is established by the language
community at every given period in the development
of the language.
Thus literary language is a historical category. I.R.
Galperin defines the literary language as "that
elaborated form (variety) of the national language
which obeys definite morphological, phonetic,
syntactical, lexical, phraseological, and stylistic
norms recognized as standard and therefore
acceptable in all kinds and types of discourse. It
allows modifications but within the framework of the
system of established norms."
The literary language greatly influences the nonliterary language. Many words, constructions and
particularly phonetic improvements have been
introduced through it into the English colloquial
language.
The English literary language was
particularly regulated and formalized during the XVII
and XVIII centuries. The influence over the nonliterary language had its greatest effect in the XIX
century with the spread of general education, in the
XX century with the introduction of radio and TV.
It is difficult to specify the characteristic features of
the non-literary variety because it does not present
any system. Thus the best way to understand it is to

contrast the non-literary form to the existing form of

the literary English. The publication of dictionaries
does much to establish the literary language norms,
but at the very moment the norm is established it
begins to fluctuate. Sometimes we may say that two
norms co-exist, but one of them will give way to its
rival and either vanish from the language completely
or remain on its outskirts. This is particularly the
case with pronunciation norms.
5
Varieties of a language
There are two varieties of language - the spoken
and the written within standard (literary) language.
This differentiation is predetermined by two distinct
factors, namely, the actual situation in which the
language is being used and the aim of
communication. Of the two varieties of language,
diachronically the spoken is primary and the written
is secondary. The spoken language is mostly
maintained in the form of a dialogue, the written - in
the form of a monologue. The spoken language has a
considerable advantage over the written because of
such factors as human voice, all kinds of gestures,
which give additional information.
The written language has to seek means to
compensate for what it lacks. This is the reason why

the written language is more carefully organized,

more explanatory, the word choice is more deliberate.
The spoken language is spontaneous, momentary. It
vanishes after having fulfilled its purpose, which is to
communicate the thought, no matter trivial or
important.
The idea remains, the language
disappears. The written language is able to live
forever with the idea it expresses.
The spoken language widely uses intensifying
words. These are interjections and words with strong
emotive meaning, as oaths, swear-words and
adjectives which have lost their primary meaning (He
put my goddam paper down. I am pretty sure.). The
spoken language is characterized by the insertion into
the utterance of words without any meaning, which
are called "fill-ups" or empty words (as well, and all,
so to say, whatever).
The essential difference between the two varieties
of language is evidently reflected in the syntactical
structure. The syntactical peculiarities of the spoken
language are
1 omission of the part of utterance easily supplied by
the situation in which the communication takes
place (Who you with? Tell you what?)
2 tendency to use the direct word-order in questions
or omit auxiliary verb, leaving it to the intonation
to indicate the grammatical meaning (He knew she
was dead?)

3 unfinished sentences (If I were you)

4 usage of a construction with two subjects (a
tautological subject) (Helen, she was there.)
5 absence of connecting words (Came home late.
Had a cup of tea. Went to bed soon after that.)
6 syntactical structures, expressing definite emotions,
which can be understood only knowing a proper
intonation design (Isn't she cute! Don't you tell me
that!)
The written language is characterized by
1 the exact nature of the utterance (the abundance of
all kinds of connecting words))
2 the bookish "space-wasters" (despite the fact; reach
a decision)
3 the use of complicated sentence-units (long periods
are more frequent than short utterances)
6
Types of Lexical Meaning
Lexical meaning is a means by which a word-form
is made to express a definite concept. Lexical
meaning refers the mind to some concrete concept,
phenomenon, or thing of objective reality, whether
real or imaginary. Lexical meaning of any word
presents a very complicated unity consisting of
connotative and denotative meanings. Denotative
(logical) meaning is connected with the
extralinguistic reality. It is the precise naming of a

feature of the idea, phenomenon, or object, the name

by which we recognize the whole of the concept.
Connotative meaning is connected with the
conditions and participants of communication.
Connotation comprises four components: emotive,
appraising, expressive and stylistic. If denotation is
obligatory in any word, connotation is optional. All
four components of connotation can be acting
together, or in different combinations or can be
entirely absent.
7
Stylistic Classification of English vocabulary
In order to get a more or less idea of the word
stock of any language, it must be presented as a
system, the elements of which are interconnected,
interrelated and yet independent. The word stock of a
language may be represented as a definite system in
which different aspects of words may be singled out
as interdependent. A special branch of linguistic
science-lexicology - has done much to classify
vocabulary. For our purpose, i. e. for linguistic
stylistics, a special type of classification, stylistic
classification is the most important.
An accordance with the division of language into
literary and colloquial, we may represent the whole
of the word stock of the English language as being

divided into three main layers: the literary layer, the

neutral layer and the colloquial layer. The literary and
the colloquial layers contain a number of subgroups
each of which has a property it shares with all the
subgroups within the layer. This common property,
which unites the different groups of words within the
layer may be called its aspect. The aspect of the
literary layer is its markedly bookish character. It is
this that makes the layer more or less stable. The
aspect of the colloquial layer of words is its lively
spoken character. It is this that makes it unstable,
fleeting.
The aspect of the neutral layer is its universal
character. That means it is unrestricted in its use. It
can be employed in all styles of language and in all
spheres of human activity. The literary layer of words
consists of groups accepted as legitimate members of
the English vocabulary. They have no local or
dialectal character. The colloquial layer of words as
qualified in most English or American dictionaries is
not infrequently limited to a definite language
community or confine to a special locality where it
circulates. 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 & 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.
8
Special literary vocabulary
a) Terms
Terms i.e. words denoting objects, processes,
phenomena of science, humanities, technique.
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, to
create the environment of a special atmosphere.
b) Poetic and highly literary words
First of all poetic words belong to a definite style of
language and perform in it their direct function.
Poetic language has special means of
communication, i.e. rhythmical arrangement, some
syntactical peculiarities and certain number of special
words. The specific poetic vocabulary has a marked
tendency to detach itself from the common literary

word stock and assume a special significance. Poetic

words and ser expressions make the utterance
understandable only to a limited number of readers.
c) Archaic words
The word stock of a language is in an increasing
state of change. In every period in the development
of a literary language one can find words which will
show more or less apparent changes in their meaning
or usage, i.e. complete disappearance of the unit from
the language. Well 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; 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.
These words are called obsolete. 3) The third group,
which may be called archaic proper, are words which
are no longer recognized 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.
d) Barbarisms and foreign words
Barbarisms are words of foreign origin which
have not entirely been assimilated into the English
language. These words, which are called barbarisms,

are, like archaisms, also considered to be on the

outskirts of the literary language.
Most of them have corresponding English
synonyms; e. g. chic (=stylish); en passant (= in
passing); ad infinitum (= to infinity) and many other
words and phrases.
Foreign words do not belong to the English
vocabulary. In printed works foreign words and
phrases are generally italicized to indicate their alien
nature or their stylistic value. There are foreign words
which fulfill a terminological function. (kolkhoz,
ukase, udarnik)
e) literary coinages
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. The given word or meaning
holds only in the given context and is meant only to
serve the occasion. However, a word or a meaning
once fixed in writing may become part and parcel of
the general vocabulary irrespective of the quality of
the word.
There are 2 types of newly coined words: 1) those
which designate new-born concepts, may be named
terminological coinages or terminological
neologisms; 2) words coined because their creators

seek expressive utterance may be named stylistic

coinages or stylistic neologism.
Neologisms are mainly coined according to the
productive models for word-building in the given
languages. Most of the literary coinages are built by
means of affixation and word compounding.
9
Special colloquial vocabulary
Slang - language peculiar to a particular group: as a:
the special and often secret vocabulary used by a
class (as thieves, beggars) and usu. felt to be vulgar
or inferior:
Slang words, used by most speakers in very
informal communication, are highly emotive and
expressive and as such, lose their originality rather
fast and are replaced by newer formations. So, the
idea of a "pretty girl" is worded by more than one
hundred ways in slang.
In only one novel by S. Lewis there are close to a
dozen synonyms used by Babbitt, the central
character, in reference to a girl: "cookie", "tomato",
"Jane", "sugar", "bird", "cutie", etc.
b) Jargonisms
Jargonism 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.
Thus the word grease means 'money'; loaf means
'head'; a tiger hunter is 'a gambler'; a lexer is 'a
student preparing for a law course'.
the jargon of thieves and vagabonds, generally
known as cant; the jargon of jazz people; the jargon
of the army, known as military slang; the jargon of
sportsmen, and many others.
c) Professionalisms
Professionalisms are the 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. Terms, as
has already been indicated, are coined to nominate
new concepts that appear in the process of, and as a
result of, technical progress and the development of
science. In distinction from slang, jargonisms and
professionalisms cover a narrow semantic field, for
example connected with the technical side of some
profession.
d) Dialectal words
Dialectal words are those which in the process of
integration of the English national language remained
beyond its literary boundaries, and their use is
generally confined to a definite locality.
Dialectal words are normative and devoid of any
stylistic meaning in regional dialects, but used

outside of them, carry a strong flavour of the locality

where they belong. DW has application limited to a
certain group of people or to certain communicative
situations.
e) Vulgar words or vulgarisms
Vulgarisms are expletives and swear words which
are of an abusive character, like 'damn', 'bloody', 'to
hell', 'goddam' and, as some dictionaries state, used
now, as general exclamations;
The function of expletives 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.
f) Colloquial coinages (words and meanings)
Colloquial coinages (nonce-words), unlike
those of a literary-bookish character, are spontaneous
and elusive. 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.
Unlike literary-bookish coinages, nonce-words of
a colloquial nature are not usually 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.

10
Lexical expressive means and stylistic devices
Words in a context may acquire additional lexical
meanings not fixed in the dictionaries, what we have
called contextual meanings. The latter may
sometimes deviate from the dictionary meaning to
such a degree that the new meaning even becomes
the opposite of the primary meaning. What is known
in linguistics as transferred meaning is practically the
interrelation between two types of lexical meaning:
dictionary and contextual. e. g. She is sly like a fox
(simile).
There are 3 groups.
1. The interaction of different types of lexical
meaning.
a) dictionary and contextual (metaphor,
metonymy, irony);
b) primary and derivative (zeugma and pun);
c) logical and emotive (epithet, oxymoron);
d) logical and nominative (autonomasia);
2. Intensification of a feature (simile, hyperbole,
periphrasis).
3. Peculiar use of set expressions (cliches,
proverbs, epigram, quotations).
11

Interaction of different types of lexical meaning.

Metaphor. Metonymy. Irony.
The relation between dictionary and contextual
meanings may be maintained along different lines: on
the principle of affinity, on that of proximity, or
symbol - referent relations, or on opposition. Thus
the stylistic device based on the first principle is
metaphor, on the second, metonymy and on the third,
irony
A metaphor is a relation between the dictionary
and contextual logical meanings based on the affinity
or similarity of certain properties or features of the
two corresponding concepts. Metaphor can be
embodied in all the meaningful parts of speech, in
nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and sometimes even
in the auxiliary parts of speech , as in prepositions.
Metaphor as any stylistic devices can be classified
according to their degree of unexpectedness. Thus
metaphors which are absolutely unexpected, are quite
unpredictable, are called genuine metaphors. e. g.
Through the open window the dust danced and was
golden. Those which are commonly used in speech
and are sometimes fixed in the dictionaries as
expressive means of language are trite metaphors or
dead metaphors e. g. a flight of fancy, floods of tears.
Metonymy is based on a different type of relation
between the dictionary and contextual meanings, a
relation based not on affinity, but on some kind of

association connecting the two concepts which these

meanings represent on a proximity
The proximity may be revealed:
1) between the symbol and the thing it denotes;
2) in the relations between the instrument and the
action performed with this instrument;
e.g. His pen is rather sharp.
3) in the relation between the container and the
thing it contains; e.g. He drank one more cup.
4) the concrete is put for the abstract;
e. g. It was a representative gathering
(science, politics).
5) a part is put for the whole;
e.g. the crown - king, a hand - worker.
Metonymy represents the events of reality in its
subjective attitude. Metonymy in many cases is trite.
e.g.:" to earn one's bread", "to keep one's
mouth shut".
Irony is a stylistic device also based on the
simultaneous realization of two logical meanings dictionary and contextual, but the two meanings are
in opposition to each other. The literal meaning is the
opposite of the intended meaning. One thing is said
and the other opposite is implied.
e.g. Nice weather, isn't it? (on a rainy day).
12

Interaction of primary and derivative logical

meaning. Polysemy. Zeugma. Pun.
There are special SDs which make a word
materialize distinct dictionary meanings. The word is
the most changeable of all language units. In the
result of the gradual development of the meaning of
the word new meanings appear alongside the primary
one derivative meanings. All of them are
interconnected with the primary one and create a
network polysemantic effect. Zeugma is the use of
a word in the same grammatical but different
semantic relations to two adjacent words in the
context, the semantic relations being literal and
transferred. Zeugma always creates a humorous
effect. Have a Coke and a smile! Have is
realized in two different meanings: in the word
combination have a Coke its direct (literal), in
have a smile its transferred. The pun is another
S.D. based on the interaction of two wellknown
meanings of a word or a phrase. It is difficult to draw
a hard and fast distinction between zeugma and 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 different
subjects or objects ( direct and indirect). The pun is
more independent. Like any S.D. it must depend on a
context. But the context may be of a more expanded

character, sometimes even as large as a whole work

of emotive prose.
e.g.- Did you miss my lecture ?
- Not at all.
13
Interaction of logical and emotive meanings.
Interjections and exclamatory words. The epithet.
The oxymoron.
There are words with the function of arousing
emotions in the reader. In such words emotiveness
prevails over intellectuality. There are also words in
which logical meanings is almost entirely lost. These
words express feelings which have passed trough out
mind. Emotiveness is a category of our minds,
feelings are expressed indirectly. Thats why it is
natural that some emotive words have become
symbols of emotions. Interjections are words which
we use to express our feelings strongly and which
exist in language in the form of conventional symbols
of human emotions. Derivative interjections retain
some degree of logical meaning suppressed by
emotive one. Hush! Alas! Gosh! These
interjections had once their logical meanings and the
shades of them are presented. Primary interjections.
They dont have logical meaning. Oh! Ah! Wow!
There are neutral interjections (bah, oh) and
colloquial ones (well). Exclamatory words words

that dont lose their logical meaning and thus

function as interjections. Heavens! Look out!
Oxymoron is a combination of 2 words in which the
meanings of the 2 clash, being opposite in sense.
terribly beautiful. One of the two members of
oxymoron illuminates the feature observed while the
other one offers a purely subjective individual
perception of the object. In it the primary logical
meaning of the adj. or adverb is capable of resisting
the power of semantic change which words undergo
in combination. It can be realized in several models:
adj. + noun, adverb + adj.
Epithet is a stylistic device based on the interplay of
emotive and logical meanings in an attributive word,
emotionally colored attitude of the speaker to the
object he describes. careful attention. heartburning smile. Another structural variety of epithet is
called reversed two nouns liked in an of-phrase.
The evaluating, emotional element is in the noun
described. A doll of the baby.
14.
Intensification of a certain feature of a thing or
phenomenon. Simile. Hyperbole.

The feature of the object which is picked out seems

unimportant and frequently transitory. But for a
special reason its elevated to the greatest importance
and made into a telling feature. Simile: imaginative
comparison of two unlike objects which belong to
different classes. It excludes all the properties of the
compared objects except one which is made common
to them. The girl is like a bird. Trite simile points
out the analogy between the human being and the
animals which have stereotyped traits of character,
states. As wet as a fish. Hyperbole: is a deliberate
overstatement or exaggeration of a feature of a thing
or phenomenon. If it is used frequently it may
become trite hyperbole. Ive told you thousand
times!
15
Syntactical Expressive Means and Stylistic
Devices. Stylistic inversion. Detached
construction. Chiasmus. Repetition. Climax
They include: stylistic inversion, detached
constructions, parallel constructions , chiasmus,
suspense, climax, antithesis.
Stylistic Inversion. The English word order is
fixed. Any change which doesn't influence the
meaning but is only aimed at emphasis is called a
stylistic inversion. Stylistic inversion aims at
attaching logical stress or additional emotional

colouring to the surface meaning of the utterance.

Therefore a specific intonation pattern is the
inevitable satellite of inversion.
The following patterns of stylistic inversion are
most frequently met in both English prose and
English poetry.
1. The object is placed at the beginning of the
sentence.
2. The attribute is placed after the word it
modifies, e. g. With fingers weary and worn.
3. The predicate is placed before the subject, e.g. A
good generous prayer it was.
4. The adverbial modifier is placed at the
beginning of the sentence.
e.g. My dearest daughter, at your feet I fall.
5. Both modifier and predicate stand before the
subject, e. g. In went Mr. Pickwick.
Detached constructions. Sometimes one of the
secondary members of the sentence is placed so that
it seems formally inderpendent of the word it refers
to. Being formally inderpendent this secondary
member acquires a greater degree of significance and
is given prominence by intonation. e.g. She was
gone. For good.
Chiasums is based on repetition of syntactical
patterns, but it has a reversed order in one of the
utterances.

e.g. She was a good sport about all this, but so was
he.
Climax (gradation) - an ascending series of words
or utterances in which intensity or significance
increases step by step.
e. g. Every racing car, every racer, every
mechanic, every ice - cream van was also plastered
with advertising.
Repetition aims at logical emphasis in order to fix the
readers attention on the key-words of the utterance.
There are: 1) Anaphora when the repeated unit
comes at the beginning. Your cheek, your gluttony,
your obstinacy impose respect on me. 2) Epiphora
the repeated units is at the end of a sentence. To
get into the best society one has either to feed people,
amuse people. 3) Framing repetition the initial
word is repeated at the end of the unit. Please
dont tie me down, please. 4) Linking repetition the
last word of one part is repeated at the beginning of
the following one. If you have nothing to say, say
it. 5) Chain repetition a group of linking repetition
used in the same utterance. Now he understood.
He understood many things. 6) Synonymic repetition
repetition of the same idea with the help of
synonyms. 7) Pleonasm the use of more words than
are necessary. Usually the fault of style. 8) Tautology

 repetition of the same statement. Usually in other

words the fault of style.
16.
Peculiar ways of combining parts of the utterance.
Asyndeton. Polysyndeton.
Asyndeton is connection between parts of a sentence
or between sentences without any formal sign. It
becomes a stylistic if there is a deliberate omission of
the connective where it is generally expected to be
according to the norms of the literary language.
The boys all hated him, he was so good. In this
sentence the conjunction because is omitted.
Polysyndeton is connection between parts of a
sentence or between sentences by using connectives
(mostly conjunctions and prepositions) before each
component part. She stirred the fire, and shut the
door, and sat as near to it as she could, quite on the
edge of her chair. Another function of this type is
disintegrating.
17
Peculiar use of colloquial constructions.
Represented speech
Emotional syntactical structures typical of the spoken
language are often very effectively used by authors to
depict the emotional state of the character. They are
also used in the narrative of the author. Represented

speech is that form of utterance which conveys the

actual words of the speaker through the mouth of the
writer but which retains the peculiarities of the
speakers mode of expression. Uttered represented
speech demands that the tense should be switched
from present to past and that the personal pronouns
should be changed from the 1st and 2nd person to 3rd
person as in indirect speech, but the syntactical
structure of the utterance isnt changed. Why was
she nervous? What was there about a toy to make her
grow pale? Why should she be so nervous? uttered
represented speech is shown in the Past Indefinite
Unuttered represented speech is the thoughts and
feelings going on in ones mind and reflecting some
previous experience. It has no communicative
function and is very fragmentary, incoherent, isolated
and consists of separate units which hint at the
content of the utterance but do not word it explicitly.
This type of represented speech is often introduced
by verbs of mental perception, as think, feel, wonder,
occur, ask, tell oneself, understand
18
The Belles-letters style. Language of poetry.
Emotive prose. Language of the drama

Belles-lettres style (the style of fiction)

embraces:1)poetry; 2)drama; 3)emotive prose. B-l
style or the style of imaginative literature may be
called the richest register of communication: besides
its own lan-ge means which are not used in any other
sphere of communication, b-l st. makes ample use of
other styles too, for in numerous works of literary art
we find elements of scientific, official and other
functional types of speech. Besides informative and
persuasive functions, b-l style has a unique task to
impress the reader aesthetically. The form becomes
meaningful and carries additional info.
Poetry. Peculiarities - rhythm and rhyme. As a SD
rhythm is a combination of the ideal metrical scheme
and its variations governed by the standard.
Emotive prose. Emotive prose is a combination of
literary variant of the language and colloquial, which
is presented by the speech of the characters which is
stylized that means it has been made "literature like"
and some elements of conversational English were
made use of. Emotive prose allows the use of
elements of other styles but the author changes them
and fulfils a certain function. SDs used: in emotive
prose style are represented speech, detached
constructions, gap - sentence link.
Drama - the language of plays mainly consists of
dialogues. The author's speech is in the form of stage

remarks. Any presentation of a play is an aesthetic

procedure. The language of a play has the following
peculiarities:
- it is stylized (retains the modus of literary English);
- it presents the variety of spoken language;
- it has redundancy of information caused by
necessity to amplify the utterance;
- monologue is never interrupted;
- character's utterances are much longer than in
ordinary conversation;

19
Publicistic style. The article. The essay
Publicistic style. (oratory, speeches, essays, articles)
the style is a perfect ex. Of historical changeability of
stylistic differentiation of discourses. In Greece it
was practiced in oral form which was named P. in
accordance with the name of its corresponding genre.
PS is famous for its explicit pragmatic function of
persuasion directed at influencing the reader &
shaping his views in accordance with the
argumentation of the author. We find in PS a blend of
the rigorous logical reasoning, reflecting the
objective state of things & a strong subjectivity

reflecting the authors personal feelings and emotions

towards the discussed subject.
2. The essay
The essay is a literary composition of moderate
length on philosophical, social, aesthetic or literary
subjects. It never goes deep into the subject. An essay
is rather a series of personal and witty comments than
a finished argument or a conclusive examination of
any matter.
Feature articles are generally published in
newspapers.
3. Articles
Irrespective of the character of the magazine and the
divergence of subject matter whether it is political,
literary, popular-scientific or satirical, all the features
of publistic style are to be found in any article. The
character of the magazine as well as the subject
chosen affects the choice and use of stylistic devices.
There are popular scientific articles, satirical articles,
political magazine articles, newspaper articles, etc.
Literary reviews stand closer to essay both by their
content and by their linguistic form. More abstract
words of logical meaning are used in them, they more
often resort to emotional language and less frequently
to traditional set expressions.

Substyles: The oratory essays, journalistic articles,

radio and TV commentary. Oratory. It makes use
of a great hummber of expressive means to arouse
and keep the public's interest: repetition, gradation,
antithesis, rhetorical questions, emotive words,
elements of colloquial speech. Radio and TV
commentary is less impersonal and more expressive
and emotional. The essay is very subjective and the
most colloquial of the all substyles of the publicistic
style. It makes use of expressive means and tropes.
The journalistic articles are impersonal.
20
Newspaper style. Brief new item. The headline.
Advertisements and announcements. The editorial
The basic communicative function of this style is to
inform people about all kinds of events and
occurrences which may be of some interest to them.
Newspaper materials may be classified into three
groups: brief news reviews, informational articles
and advertisements. The vocabulary of the newspaper
style consists mostly of neutral common liter-ary
words, though it also contains many political, social
and economic terms. There are lots of abbrevia-tions.
One of unattractive feature of the newsp. st. is the
overabundance of cliches.

Brief items: its function is to inform the reader. It

states only facts without giving comments. The
vocabulary used is neutral and common literary.
Specific features are:
a) special political and economic terms;
b) non-term political vocabulary;
c) newspaper clichms;
d) abbreviations;
e) neologisms.
Headlines. The main function is to inform the
reader briefly of what the news is to follow about.
Syntactically headlines are very short sentences,
interrogative sentences, nominative sentences,
elliptical sentences, sentences with articles omitted,
headlines including direct speech.
Advertisements and announcements. The function
of advertisements and announcements is to inform
the reader. There are two types of them: classified
and non-classified. In classified the information is
arranged according to the subject matter: births,
marriages,
21
The scientific prose style
The style of scientific prose has 3 subdivisions:1) the
style of humanitarian sciences; 2) the style of "exact"
sciences; 3) the style of popular scientific prose. Its

function is to work out and ground theoretically

objective knowledge about reality. The aim of
communication is to create new concepts, disclose
the international laws of existence. The peculiarities
are: objectiveness; logical coherence, impersonality,
unemotional character, exactness. The scientific
prose style consists mostly of ordinary words which
tend to be used in their primary logical meaning.
Emotiveness depends on the subject of investigation
but mostly scientific prose style is unemotional.
Grammar: The logical presentation and cohesion of
thought manifests itself in a developed feature of
scientific syntax is the use of established patterns. postulatory; - formulative; - argumentative; The
impersonal and objective character of scientific prose
style is revealed in the frequent use of passive
constructions, impersonal sentences. Personal
sentences are more frequently used in exact sciences.
In humanities we may come across constructions but
few. Some features of the style in the text are: - use
of quotations and references; - use of foot-notes helps
to preserve the logical coherence of ideas. Scientific
popular style has the following peculiarities: emotive
words, elements of colloquial style.
22
The style of official documents

1) Language of business letters;

2) Language of legal documents;
3) Language of diplomacy;
4) Language of military documents; The aim:
1. to reach agreement between two
contracting parties;
2. to state the conditions binding two parties
in an understanding. Each of substyles of official
documents makes use of special terms. Legal
documents: military documents, diplomatic
documents. The documents use set expressions
inherited from early Victorian period. This
vocabulary is conservative. Legal documents contain
a large proportion of formal and archaic words used
in their dictionary meaning. In diplomatic and legal
documents many words have Latin and French
origin. There are a lot of abbreviations and
conventional symbols.
The most noticable feature of grammar is the
compositional pattern. Every document has its own
stereotyped form. The form itself is informative and
tells you with what kind of letter we deal with.
Business letters contain: heading, addressing,
salutation, the opening, the body, the closing,
complimentary clause, the signature. Syntactical
features of business letters are - the predominance of
extended simple and complex sentences, wide use of
participial constructions, homogeneous members.

Morphological peculiarities are passive

constructions, they make the letters impersonal.
There is a tendency to avoid pronoun reference. Its
typical feature is to frame equally important factors
and to divide them by members in order to avoid
ambiguity of the wrong interpretation.
23
The phonetic expressive means and stylistic
devices
A phoneme has a strong associative and soundinstrumenting power. Due to its articulatory and
acoustic properties certain ideas, feelings, images are
awaken. Its vivid in poetry. Onomatopoeia (sound
imitation) is a combination of speech sounds which
imitate sounds produced in nature (wind) by things
(tools), by people (laughing), by animals (barking).
plink, plink, fizz.
Direct onomatopoeia: words which imitate natural
sounds. buzz. Indirect: combination of sounds
which makes the sound of the utterance an echo of its
sense. . Alliteration:
repetition of similar consonant sounds in close
succession. Functional, fashionable, formidable.
Assonance: repetition of similar vowel sounds,
usually in stressed syllables. Grace, space,pace.

Euphony: produced by alliteration or assonance.

Sense of ease and comfort in producing or hearing.
Favors unused are favors abused. Euphony is
created by the assonance of the vowels [ei, u:] and
alliteration [zd] frequent in proverbs. Rhyme:
repetition of identical or similar terminal sounds or
sound combinations in words. One, two, three,
four, five. I caught a fish alive. Assonance of vowel
[ai]. Rhythm: complex unit defined as a regular
recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables
(strong and weak elements) which determine the
meter in poetry or the measured flow of words in
prose.
One, two, three, four. Mary at the cottage door.
24
The graphic expressive means and stylistic devices
Graphical EMs serve to convey in the written form
those emotions which in the oral speech are
expressed by intonation and stress, in written form
they are shown mostly with the help of punctuation
and deliberate change of a spelling of a word.
. Marks of punctuation: hyphen, dash, comma, period
(full-stop),
colon,
semicolon,
exclamation,
interrogation, series of dots. They are used not only
for the division of speech into its logical parts, but
also for emphatic purposes which suggest a definite

semantic interpretation of the utterance. ,

, . Another group of graphical
means is based on the violation of type: italics, bold
type, capitalization. Not only words but separate
syllables, morphemes may be emphasized by italics
(). Spaced type is also included into this group
of graphical means though it is not so frequent as
italics. N o w! spaced letters are used for
25
Break-in-the-narrative. Litotes.
Break-in-the narrative is a stylistic device based on a
sudden breaking off in the midst of a sentence as if
from inability for private communication.
Martin didnt shoot himself. Martin didnt - . Of
course, he didnt. I shoot him. Expresses the surprise
of the character.
In the spoken variety of the l-ge a br-in-the-nar is
usually caused by unwillingness to proceed; or by the
supposition that what remains to be said can be
understood by the implication embodied in what has
been said; or by uncertainty as to what should be
said. In the written variety a br-in-the-nar is always a
stylistic device used for some stylistic effect. In
writing it is the context which suggests the adequate
intonation, that is the only key to decoding the

aposiopesis. A-s is a stylistic syntactical device to

convey to the reader a very strong upsurge of
emotions. The idea of it is that the speaker cannot
proceed, his feelings depriving him of the ability to
express himself in terms of l-ge. Smt a br-in-the-nar
is caused by euphemistic considerations. Here the
role of the intonation implied cannot be
overestimated.
Litotes - is a device - an affirmation is expressed
by denying its contrary. Usually litotes presupposes
double negation. One through a negative particle (no,
not) the other - through a word with negative
meaning. Its function is to convey doubts of the
speaker concerning the exact characteristics of the
object or a feeling. The stylistic effect of litotes
depends mainly on intonation. A variant of litotes is a
constr-n with 2 negations, as in not unlike, not
unpromising, not displeased & the like. Litotes is
used in different styles of speech excluding official
style & scientific prose.
e.g. It's not a bad thing - It's a good thing.
e.g. He is no coward. He is a brave man.
26
Represented speech. Rhetorical question.

Represented speech There is also a device which

coveys to the reader the unuttered or inner speech of
the character, his thoughts and feelings. This device
is also termed represented speech. To distinguish
between the two varieties of represented speech we
call the representation of the actual utterance through
the author's language "uttered represented speech",
and the representation of the thoughts and feelings of
the character unuttered or inner represented speech.
A rhetorical question is asked just for effect or to
lay emphasis on some point discussed when no real
answer is expected. A rhetorical question may have
an obvious answer but the questioner asks rhetorical
questions to lay emphasis to the point. In literature, a
rhetorical question is self-evident and used
for style as an impressive persuasive device. Broadly
speaking, a rhetorical question is asked when the
questioner himself knows the answer already or an
answer is not actually demanded. So, an answer is
not expected from the audience. Such a question is
used to emphasize a point or draw the audiences
attention.

31

Brief new item

Brief new items: its function is to inform the
reader. It states only facts without giving comments.
The vocabulary used is neutral and common literary.
Specific features are:
a) special political and economic terms;
b) non-term political vocabulary;
c) newspaper clichms;
d) abbreviations;
e) neologisms.
The following grammatical peculiarities of brief
news items are of paramount importance, and may be
regarded as grammatical parameters of newspaper
style: 1. complex sentences with a developed system
of clauses; 2. verbal constructions; 3. syntactical
complexes; 4. attributive noun groups; 5. specific
word order.
32.
Oratory and speech
Oratorical style is the oral subdivision of the
publicistic style.
Direct contact with the listeners permits the
combination of the syntactical, lexical and phonetic
peculiarities of both the written and spoken varieties
of language. Certain typical features of the spoken
variety of speech present in this style are: direct
address to the audience (ladies and gentlemen,

honorable member(s), the use of the 2nd person

pronoun you, etc.), sometimes constractions (Ill,
wont, havent, isnt and others) and the use of
colloquial words.
The stylistic devices employed in oratorical style are
determined by the conditions of communication.
Repetition can be regarded as the most typical
stylistic device of English oratorical style. Almost
any piece of oratory will have parallel constructions,
antithesis, suspense, climax, rhetorical questions and
questions-in-the-narrative.
33
Advertisements and announcements
The function of advertisement and announcement is
to inform the reader. There are 2 basic types of
advertisements and announcements in the modern
English newspaper: classified and nonclassified(separate).
In classified advertisements and announcements
various kinds of information are arranged according
to subject-matter into sections, each bearing an
appropriate name.
As for the separate advertisements and
announcements, the variety of language form and
subject-matter is so great that hardly any essential
features common to all be pointed out.

34.
The editorial
Editorials are an intermediate phenomenon bearing
the stamp of both the newspaper style and the
publistic style.
The function of the editorial is to influence the
reader by giving an interpretation of certain facts.
Emotional coloring in editorial articles is also
achieved with the help of various stylistic
devices(especially metaphors and epithets), both
lexical and syntactical, the use of which is largely
traditional
35
compositional patterns of rhythmic arrangement
The most observable and widely recognized
compositional patterns of rhythm making up classical
verse are based, on:
1) alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables,
x
2) equilinearity, that is, an equal number of
syllables in the lines,
3) a natural pause at the end of the line, the line
being a more or less complete semantic unit,
4) identity of stanza pattern,
5) established patterns of rhyming.

Rhythm is a periodicity, which requires

specification as to the type of periodicity. Inverse
rhythm is regular succession of weak and strong
stress. A rhythm in language necessarily demands
oppositions that alternate: long, short; stressed,
unstressed; high, low and other contrasting segments
of speech.
Academician V.M. Zhirmunsky suggests that the
concept of rhythm should be distinguished from that
of a metre. Metre is any form of periodicity in verse,
its kind being determined by the character and
number of syllables of which it consists. The metre is
a strict regularity, consistency and unchangeability.
Rhythm is flexible and sometimes an effort is
required to perceive it. In classical verse it is
perceived at the background of the metre. In accented
verse - by the number of stresses in a line. In prose by the alternation of similar syntactical patterns.
Rhythm in verse as a S. D. is defined as a
combination of the ideal metrical scheme and the
variations of it, variations which are governed by the
standard. There are the following rhythmic patterns
of verse:
iambus
dactul
umphibrach

anapaest.
Rhythm is not a mere addition to verse or emotive
prose, which also has its rhythm. Rhythm intensifies
the emotions. It contributes to the general sense.
Much has been said and writhen about rhythm in
prose. Some investigators, in attempting to find
rhythmical patterns of prose, superimpose metrical
measures on prose. But the parametres of the rhythm
in verse and in prose are entirely different.
36
Unuttered or inner represented speech
Represented speech is that form of utterance which
conveys the actual words of the speaker through the
mouth of the writer but which retains the peculiarities
of the speakers mode of expression.
Uttered represented speech demands that the tense
should be switched from present to past and that the
personal pronouns should be changed from the 1st and
2nd person to 3rd person as in indirect speech, but the
syntactical structure of the utterance isnt changed.
Why was she nervous? What was there about a
toy to make her grow pale? Why should she be so
nervous? uttered represented speech is shown in the
Past Indefinite
Unuttered represented speech is the thoughts and
feelings going on in ones mind and reflecting some

previous experience. It has no communicative

function and is very fragmentary, incoherent, isolated
and consists of separate units which hint at the
content of the utterance but do not word it explicitly.
This type of represented speech is often introduced
by verbs of mental perception, as think, feel, wonder,
occur, ask, tell oneself, understand
The thoughts & feelings going on in ones mind &
reflecting some previous experience are called inner
speech. Inner speech is a psychological phenomenon.
But when it is wrought into full utterance it ceases to
be inner speech, acquires a communicative function
& becomes a phenomenon of the l-ge. The reader is
presented with a complete l-ge unit capable of
carrying inf-n. This device is called inner
represented speech. In.rep.sp retains the most
characteristic features of inner sp. It is also
fragmentary, but only to an extent which will not
hinder the understanding of the communication.
Inn.rep.sp unlike uttered rep.sp expresses feelings &
thoughts of the character which were not
materialized in spoken or written l-ge by the
character. That is why it abounds in excl.words &
phrases, elliptical constr-ns, breaks & other means of
conveying feelings & psychological states. The tense

forms are shifted to the past; the 3rd person personal

prns replace the 1st & the 2nd.
39
Question in the narrative. Changes the real nature
of a question and turns it into a stylistic device. A
question in the narrative is asked and answered by
one and the same person, usually the author. It
becomes akin to a parenthetical statement with strong
emotional implications. e. g. For what is left the poet
here? For Greeks a blush - for Greece a tear.
As is seen from these examples the questions
asked, unlike rhetorical questions do not contain
statements.
Question in the narrative is very often used in
oratory. This is explained by one of the leading
features of oratorical style - to induce the desired
reaction to the content of the speech.
43
Gap-sentence link is a way of connecting two
sentences seemingly unconnected and leaving it to
the readers imagination to grasp the idea implied.
She says nothing but its clear that she is harping on
this engagement, and
The functions of GSL are the following:
1) it signals the introduction of inner represented

speech;
2) it indicates a subjective evaluation of the facts;
3) it displays an unexpected coupling of ideas.
The Gap-Sentence Link aims at stirring up in
the readers mind the suppositions, associations and
conditions under which the sentence can exist.