Style and stylistic accommodation in translation

Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine

Ukraine opens international university of human development

Translation chair

By specialty 7030501

Diploma paper

Style and stylistic accommodation in translation

(Oscar Wilde's Works)

Performed by:

5th year student

V.O. Lakhno

Scientific supervisor

Candidate in Philology

O.M. Medvid'

Kyiv, 2009

Міністерство освіти i науки України

Відкритий міжнародний університет розвитку людини "Україна"

Кафедра "Переклад"

Дипломна робота

за спеціальністю 7030501 "Переклад"

Особливості перекладу стилістичних засобів

(на матеріалі творів Оскара Уайльда)

Виконала:

Студентка 5-го курсу

Лахно Віта Олександрівна

Науковий керівник:

Кандидат філологічних наук

Медвiдь Олена Миколаївна

Київ, 2009

Анотація

Вживання стилістичних засобів є необхідною складовою художніх творів, а також вербального спілкування. Дипломна робота присвячена вивченню стилістичних прийомів та експресивних засобів, які Оскар Уайльд використовує у своїх романах та п'єсах. Предметом стилістичного аналізу є мова у процесі її вживання. Стилістика розглядається, як спеціальний засіб, за допомогою якого наше мовлення стає яскравішим та цікавішим.

Робота стосується аналізу перекладу тих стилістичних прийомів та експресивних засобів, які надають висловлюванню більшої колоритності. У своїй роботі я детально розглядаю лише ті стилістичним прийомам, які являються найбільш емоційно забарвлені.

Різниця між стилістичними прийомами та експресивними засобами невелика, вони тісно пов'язані один з одним. Розподіл на стилістичні прийоми та експресивні засоби являється винятково умовним. Стилістичні та експресивні засоби мають випромінюючий ефект, вони помітно окрашають все висловлювання, незважаючи на те, що речення є логічним чи емоціональним. Вони відтворюють думки та почуття автора, заставляючи читача думати і відчувати саме так, як того потребує автор.

У творах Оскара Уайльда можна зустріти безліч стилістичних прийомів та експресивних засобів, які допомагають авторові створити його власний чіткий та вишуканий стиль.

Стилістичні прийоми, експресивні прийоми, стилістичний аналіз, лексичні засоби, синтаксичні засоби, фонетичні засоби, висловлювання.

Resume

Stylistic devises are the essential part of the text. My work is dedicated to analyze of stylistic devices and expressive means used by Oscar Wilde in his plays and novels and its translation into Ukrainian. The object of stylistic analysis is the language in the process of its usage. Stylistics treats with special means of the language that help us to have vivid and interesting speech.

My concern is the analysis of translation of those stylistic devises and expressive means, which are capable of making utterances emotionally coloured. I take only those stylistic devises, which are based on some significant point in utterance. The difference between stylistic devises and expressive means is not large; they are closely connected with each other. The division of things into expressive means and stylistic devises is purely conventional. Stylistic expressive means have a kind of radiating effect. They noticeably colour the whole utterance no matter whether they are logical or emotional. They reproduce the author's thoughts and feelings and make the reader to think and feel what the author wants him to feel and think.

We can find different stylistic expressive means and stylistic devices in Wilde's plays. This expressive means help the author to create his clear-cut and elegant style, to give rhythm to his language. They give a musical value to every phrase.

Stylistic devices, expressive means, stylistic analysis, lexical means, syntactical means, phonetic means, utterance.

Resume

There are a lot of well known artist works of English writers. They are rich on stylistic devises, which make the text more bright and vivid. Stylistic devises are the essential part of the text. Stylistic and its devices are also present in people's every day speech. It is impossible to imagine our utterances without emphasizing, comparability and expressing our negative and positive emotions. 70 per cent of our life time is spent in various forms of communication activities - oral (speaking, listening) or written (reading, writing), so it is self-evident how important it is for a philologist to know the mechanics of relations between the non-verbal, extralinguistic, cognitive essence of the communicative act and its verbal, linguistic presentation. It is known that stylistic is primary the study of synonymic language resources.

The object - artistic works by Oscar Wilde.

The subject - stylistic devises and its translation.

The goal of my diploma paper is to demonstrate how stylistic devises used by Oscar Wilde in his well known works and analyze their translation into Ukrainian language. To show its necessity in both English and Ukrainian languages. It is necessary to illustrate potential possibilities of linguistic units more primitive then the word, found at lower levels of language structure and yet capable of conveying additional information when foregrounded in a specially organized context.

The task is to achieve equivalent translation of Oscar Wilde's novels, taking into account all stylistic devices, used by author in his works. To analyze transference into Ukrainian language and choose right equivalent in the language of translation.

This theme is actual enough, because a great amount of outstanding and up to date writers use stylistic devices in their works. Stylistic and its devices are also present in people's every day speech. It is impossible to imagine our utterances without emphasizing, comparability and expressing our negative and positive emotions.

A good style of writing has three qualities, which may be described as accuracy, ease and grace." There are always three influences that will exert their pressure on a writer's style. One is his own personality; his own way of thinking and feeling that determines his mode of expression. The second is the occasion on which he is writing, the particular purpose that directs his pen at the moment of writing, so that the same man may employ different styles on different occasions. The third is the influence of the age in which he lives. In other words, a writer's style is his individual and creative choice of the resources of the language. The limitations upon the choice are superimposed by the writer's period, his genre and his purpose. Since style is something ingrained in writing, it follows that a man's way of writing will be an expression of his personality and his way of looking at life.

The first field of investigation is SDs and EMs, necessarily touches upon such general language problems as the aesthetic function of language, synonymous ways of rendering one and the same idea, emotional colouring in language, the interrelation between language and thought, the individual manner of an author in making use of language and a number of other issues.

The second field is functional styles, cannot avoid discussion of such most general linguistic issues as oral and written varieties of language, the notion of literary language, the constituents of texts larger than the sentence, the generative aspect of literary texts and some others.

In dealing with the objectives of stylistics, certain pronouncements of adjacent disciplines such as theory of information, literature, logic and to some extent statistics must be touched upon. This is indispensable; for nowadays no science is entirely isolated from other domains of human knowledge. The linguistics, particularly its branch stylistics, cannot avoid references to the above-mentioned disciplines because it is confronted with certain overlapping issues.

In linguistics, there are different terms to denote particular means by which utterances are foregrounded, i.e. made more conspicuous, more effective and therefore imparting some additional information. They are called expressive means, stylistic devices, tropes, figures of speech and other names. All these terms are used indiscriminately and are set against those means, which we shall conventionally call neutral. Most linguists distinguish ordinary semantic and stylistic differences in meaning. They distinguish three main levels of expressive means and stylistic devices: phonetic, lexical and syntactical.

1. Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices.

Dealing with various cases of phonemic and graphemic foregrounding we should not forget the unilateral nature of a phoneme. This language unit helps to differentiate meaningful lexemes but has no meaning of its own. There is another thing to be taken into account which plays an important role. This is the way a word, a phrase or a sentence sounds. The sound of most words taken separately will have little or no aesthetic value. It is in combination with other words that a word may acquire a desired phonetic effect. The phonetic structure of the word proves to be important for the creation of expressive and emotive connotations. A message, containing an onomatopoetic word is not limited to transmitting the logical information only, but also supplies the vivid portrayal of the situation described.

2. Lexical expressive means and stylistic devices.

The main function of the word is to denote. Thus, the denotation meaning is the major semantic characteristic of the word. The words in context may acquire additional lexical meanings not fixed in dictionaries. When the deviation from the acknowledged meaning is carried to a degree that it causes an unexpected turn in the recognised logical meanings, we register a stylistic device.

The most essential feature of the word is that it expresses the concept of a thing, process, phenomenon, denoting them. Concept is a logical category, its linguistic counterpart is meaning. Meaning is the unity of generalization, communication and thinking. An entity of extreme complexity, the meaning of the word is liable to historical changes, which are responsible for the formation of an expanded semantic structure of the word. This structure is constituted of various types of lexical meanings, the major one is denotational, which informs the subject of communication; and also including connotational, which informs about the participants and condition of communication

3. Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices.

Stylistic study of the syntax begins with the study of the length and the structure of the sentence. Stylistic syntactical patterns may be viewed as variants of the general syntactical models of the language and are the more obvious and conspicuous if presented not as isolated elements or accidental usage, but as group easily observable and lending themselves to generalisation.

Theoretically speaking a sentence can be of any length, as there are no linguistic limitations for its growth, so even monstrous constructions of several hundred words each, technically should be viewed as sentences. A member of the sentence fulfils one syntactical function. When syntactical ambivalence is preserved by certain members of a sentence which fact creates semantic ambiguity for it allows at least two different readings of the sentence.

Sometimes syntactical ambivalence, like the play on words on the lexical level, is intentional and is used to achieve a humorous effect.

The syntactical meanings play serious role in the prose and it is worthy of attention during act of translation. It includes more bright and vivid units of the language.

The difference between stylistic devises and expressive means is not large, they are closely connected with each other. The division of things into expressive means and stylistic devises is purely conventional with the borders between them being somewhat shaky. That is why it is necessary to be aware of all stylistic devices and their meaning and more important to translate it in the right way.

Chapter 1. Oscar Wilde as a Brilliant Dramatist of His Time

Oscar Wilde is one of the most famous writers of the nineteenth century. He is an author, and great wit. He preached the importance of style in both life and art, and he attached Victorian narrow-mindedness and complacency. Most writers, whatever their professions, wrote with something of the emphasis and authority of the schoolmaster addressing his pupils. In spite of this common feature, Victorian writers are very different in their styles. They were individualists, and each had his own personality, which was strongly presented in their style.

Oscar Wilde was one of the Victorian aesthetes and tried to write the work that should be beautiful in its colour and cadence. His writing is highly wrought. Despite the fact that O. Wilde has probably been written about more than most nineteenth-century writers, his place and reputation continue to be uncertain.

Wilde's extraordinary personality and wit have so dominated the imaginations of most biographers and critics that their estimates of his work have too often consisted of sympathetic tributes to a writer whose literary production was little more than a faint reflection of his brilliant talk or the manifestation of what a reviewer for the "Times Literary Supplement" called his "lawlessness". Indeed, Wilde's remark that he had put his genius into his life and only his talent into his art has provided support to those who regard his life as the primary object of interest [2, 158-16].

Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1854 year. His full name is Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde. Oscar named in honour of his godfather, King Oscar I of Sweden - would eventually drop his three middle names. He said that a name that was destined to be in everybody's mouth must not be too long. He was going to be famous.

At 20, Wilde left Ireland to study at Oxford University where he had a brilliant career, where he took a first-class both in classical moderation and in literature, and also won the Newdigate Prize for English verse for a poem on "Ravenna". Even before he left the University in 1878, Wilde had become known as one of the most affected of the professors of the aesthetic movement, which advanced the new concept of "Art for Art's Sake".

Wilde was a man of great originality and power of mind. He quickly became a prominent personality in literary and social circles, but the period of his true achievement did not begin until he published "The Happy Prince and other tales" in 1888. In these fairy tales and fables, Wilde found a literary form well suited to his talents. There nine stories all together (originally published in two volumes - "The Happy Prince" - 1888 and "A House of Pomegranates" - 1891) - five in the first volume and four in the second. These stories review and uneasy blend of the moral and the fantastic.

Wilde's only novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1890), attracted much attention, and his sayings past from mouth to mouth as those of one of the professed wits of the age. This novel is about a youth, whose features, year after year, retain the same youthful appearance of innocent beauty, while the shame of his hideous vices become mirrored, year after year, on the features of his portrait.

This novel covers the whole range of human experience and imagination [17, 333- 335].

With the perfect sense of the theatre, Oscar Wilde took his characters from high society; he set his elegant marionettes in motion with such mastery that his comedies can be regarded as the wittiest that have been written in a very long time.

When his career was so sadly and so tragically interrupted, Oscar Wilde had given the theatre his real works of art.

Oscar Wilde denied the traditional criterion of the bourgeois ethics. He thought that the only moral value was the ideal of beauty in nature and in person. However, he said that beauty was not the reflection of realistic life in the people's minds, but contrary, it was just the product of artist's imagination. That is why he confirmed that art was existing independent of the life and was developing according to its own laws. He was known as a poet of graceful diction.

Oscar Wilde has contributed his most important works to the theatre: "Lady Windermere's Fan" (1892), "A Woman of No Importance" (1893), "An Ideal Husband" (1895), "The Importance of Being Earnest" (1895) and "Salome" (1893).

Of the first four which had a success without precedent, it must be said that they are constructed with extraordinary skill; they are interesting for their settings, pathetic without evoking tears, witty to the point of excess, and written in a pure literary language. In these plays, Wilde brings together the social intrigues and the witticism. "Salome", which was not presented in London and which "Theatre De L'oeuvre" mounted deplorably in Paris, is especially a marvellous poem, which has nothing in common with the modern pieces of the author. [8, 45]

Of the critical reviews, the most enthusiastic was by A.B. Walkley, one of the most respected and influential drama critics of his day, who found the play and its "brilliant talk" entirely successful. "Black and White", a literary critical review, thought that the play, despite the obvious formula of the well-made play was very amusing, and the "Westminster Review", another critical journal, opened its review with the observation that "Mr. Oscar Wilde is nothing unless brilliant and witty" [38, 161].

O. Wilde's plays were written in a light satirical vein, cultured and refined, and in good taste. His characters served as the mouths to enunciate the author's exquisitely funny remarks on society. The remarks of the cynical young men about life, love and society may show a keen appreciation of the vices of the upper-class society.

Surely a good moral woman, such as Lady Windermere is made out to be, would not desert her husband because of the mere gossip of a scandal-mongering old lady. Lord Windermere also would never have allowed matters to come to a crisis without taking his wife into confidence and explaining to her a little sooner his relationship with Mrs. Erlynne. But this is not Mr. Wilde's idea. He was anxious to express to the world his reflections on things in general, to lash the pretty vices of people of fashion, and did not, in the least, wish to tell a good story.

So, the plot does not matter, as the whole interest lies in the conversation, which is as if many Wildes, male and female, were talking together.

"Lady Windermere's Fan" ran for five months before it was taken on tour of the provinces. An early indication that Wilde's fame as a dramatist was known on the Continent occurs in a letter, dated 5 September 1892, to Wilde from J.T. Grein, a founder of the Independent Theatre, who drew up on Wilde's behalf a contract with a Doctor O. Blumenthal for the sole right of production of "Lady Windermere's Fan" in Austria and Germany, half of his fees and other royalties to go to Wilde. Publication of the play occurred in November 1892, by the Bodley Head. The play was first translated into French in 1913 [38, 167-169] .

Following Wilde's death, revivals of the play at the St. James's Theatre were given in 1902, 1904, 1911. Clearly, "Lady Windermere's Fan" was a stunning recovery from Wilde's two previous theatrical failures, and since this was his first play, produced in England. The triumph was of singularly greater significance.

His next venture, "Salome", rehearsals for which were proceeding with Sarah Bernhardt in the leading role, encountered the displeasure of the Examiner of Plays for the Lord Chamberlain, who refused to license it since it contained Biblical characters [23, 5-8].

On the Continent, "Salome" was performed in most of the major cities between 1902 and 1912, where it was widely regarded as Wilde's masterpiece. But in America its first production in 1905 by an avant-garde group was poorly received.

"A Woman of No Importance", Wilde's second play produced in London, attracted a glittering first-night audience. Despite enthusiasm of some critics, the play ran until only 16 August, a month less then that enjoyed by "Lady Windermere's Fan". The reviews, as Max Beerbohm ironically indicates, were surprisingly good, considering the fact that the play was weaker than "Lady Windermere's Fan". The purpose of Wilde's idea is to show the decomposition of English society."A Woman of No Importance" is very interesting and has a great power of Oscar Wilde's brilliant witticism [15, 1-3].

"An Ideal Husband", which opened January 3, 1895 at the Theatre Royal, did not draw praise from H.G. Wells and Clement Scott, who were never able to see much value in Wilde as a playwright. But Archer, Shaw, Walkley and William Dean Howells all agreed that it was a work the high order, despite some obvious weaknesses in its characterisation or the lessened output of Wilde's "epigram-factory", as Archer called it. But the majority of critics agreed that this play had an unmistakable success.

"An Ideal Husband" had a run of three performances, closing on April 6 (the day following Wilde's arrest, though announcements had been made beforehand that the play would soon close to permit production of another play). It was reopened at the Criterion Theatre on April 13 and was withdrawn on April 27.

In New-York "An Ideal Husband", which opened at the Lyceum Theatre on March 12, 1895, was judged by most of the critics as Wilde's best play to date. A notable feature of the reviewers is that they contain fewer personal attacks than in the past. What particularly irritated the critics, however, was that the audiences seemed to enjoy the play.

"The Importance of Being Earnest" is widely recognised as one of the finest comedies of the English stage. But like all true comedies, the play reveals a variety of people, talks and events in a short period of time. This comedy also has a title "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People". In this play, Wilde departed from his standard formula of building up the high comedy farce. The characters do not take the life seriously and the result of it is a satire of the author on the English society shallowness. The play is very witty and with many epigrams and paradoxes.

The journal "Punch" printed a fictitious interview with Wilde to suggest its own attitude towards his new play and a common attitude towards his wit:

Questioner: Why give a play such a title?

Author: Why not?

Q: Does the trivial comedy require a plot?

A: Nothing to speak of.

Q: Or characterisation?

A: No, for the same kind of dialogue will do for all the company - for London ladies, country girls, justices of the peace, doctors of divinity, maid - servants, and confidential butlers.

Q: What sort of dialogue?

A: Inverted proverbs and renovated paradoxes. (February 23, 1895).

The reputation of Oscar Wilde as a writer and a critic was doubtful for many critics, but almost all of them considered him a brilliant dramatist of his time.

Wilde's fame rests chiefly on his comedies of fashionable life: "Lady Windermere's Fan", "An Ideal Husband", "A Woman of No Importance" and "The Importance of Being Earnest". The sparkling wit and vivacity, characteristic of these plays, helped them to keep the stage for more than half a century. In spite of their superficial drawing-room treatment of human problems, they are still attractive to numerous theatregoers because of their brilliancy of dialogue and entertaining plot. The basis of the moral conflict is usually the idea that the past of his heroes has the greatest influence on their present and future, and, thus, it defines their actions and directs their soul development. In his play "An Ideal Husband" Wilde says: "One's past is what one is. It is the only way by which people should be judged". And this idea is very productive in his plays. Wilde shows that justice does not exist in the society of the upper class (Mrs. Arbuthnot - "A Woman of No Importance", and Mrs. Erlynne - "Lady Windermere's Fan", are the real victims of this "moral justice" of the English society [7, 104-107].

Oscar Wilde's characters are the people of high society. He gives some typical features to his characters, but refuses the most famous way of that time to settle accounts with the enemies through the literary characters. Wilde's heroes have no prototypes in real life. He named them by places' titles where he worked writing these comedies. The moral conflict structure of Wilde's plays is usually presented by means of action suspense. The first act of "Lady Windermere's Fan" is almost all consisting of the saloon talks. But Wilde considers it to be the perfect act. These talks are full of witty fights with the help of wonderful epigrams. "The Importance of Being Earnest" - his masterpiece - was written without any pretension to the psychological depth. It is the light and merry farce - comedy. All its intrigues are based on the homonyms (for example: "Earnest" - adjective means "serious"; and the personal name - Ernest). The delicate humour and comical situation provide it for the longevity on the stage [13, 67-78].

Oscar Wilde tried to create the fame of the great aesthete. His speech was full of paradoxical judgements. Here are some examples taken from different plays:

"Conscience and cowardice are really the same things. Conscience is the trade name of the firm. That is all."

"Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose."

"Men marry because they are tired; women because they are curious. Both are disappointed."

"Life is far too important a thing to talk seriously about it."

"A man who allows himself to be convinced by an argument is a thoroughly unreasonable person"; and many other.

In 1895, Wilde was at the peak of his career and had three hit plays running at the same time. At the same year, he found himself under the trial. As a result, Wilde became involved in a hopeless legal dispute and was sentenced to two years in prison at hard labour. For the last three years, he had lived abroad. Ruined in health, finances and creative energy, but with his characteristic wit, he died in France in 1990. But the voices of Wilde's brilliant plays continue to be heard until well on in the present century. Indeed, they are still occasionally heard today. It was not the exaggeration that these plays were called the wittiest comedies of the nineteenth century. And it is true that they will have their great fame for many generations.

Chapter 2

2.1 Style and Stylistics in O. Wilde's Works

The word "style" is derived from the Latin word "stylus" which meant a short stick sharp at one end and flat at the other used by the Romans for writing on wax tablets. Now the word "style" has a very broad meaning. We speak of style in architecture, painting, clothes, behaviour, literature, speech, etc. The style of any period is the result of a variety of complex and shifting pressures and influences. The way we think and speak modifies the way we write, or the way other write, influences our thought and speech. There is the constant interaction between life and literature. Books reflect the shape of our experience, but our experience of life is also shaped by the books we read. In every age the major writers help to shape the thinking and feeling, and hence the style, of their contemporaries.

Raymond Chapman, the author of "A Short Way to Better English", says that "A good style of writing has three qualities, which may be described as accuracy, ease and grace." There are always three influences that will exert their pressure on a writer's style. One is his own personality; his own way of thinking and feeling that determines his mode of expression. The second is the occasion on which he is writing, the particular purpose that directs his pen at the moment of writing, so that the same man may employ different styles on different occasions. The third is the influence of the age in which he lives. In other words, a writer's style is his individual and creative choice of the resources of the language. The limitations upon the choice are superimposed by the writer's period, his genre and his purpose. Since style is something ingrained in writing, it follows that a man's way of writing will be an expression of his personality and his way of looking at life.

This explains the famous and much-quoted definition of style given by Buffon, a French writer and naturalist of the eighteenth century. He wrote: "Le style, c'est l'homme meme" [13, 80-87].

Stylistics, sometimes called linguo-stylistics, is a branch of general linguistics. It has now more or less definitely outlined. It deals mainly with two interdependent tasks:

a) The investigation of the inventory of special language media which by their ontological features secure the desirable effect of the utterance;

b) Certain types of texts (discourse) which due to the choice and arrangement of language means are distinguished by the pragmatic aspect of the communication.

The two objectives of stylistics are clearly discernible as two separate fields of investigation. The inventory of special language media can be analysed and their ontological features revealed if presented in a system in which the co-relation between the media becomes evident.

The types of texts can be analysed if their linguistic components are presented in their interaction, thus, revealing the unbreakable unity and transparency of constructions of a given type. The types of texts that are distinguished by the pragmatic aspect of the communication are called functional styles of language (FS). The special media of language which secure the desirable effect of the utterance are called stylistic devices (SD) and expressive means (EM).

The first field of investigation, i.e. SDs and EMs, necessarily touches upon such general language problems as the aesthetic function of language, synonymous ways of rendering one and the same idea, emotional colouring in language, the interrelation between language and thought, the individual manner of an author in making use of language and a number of other issues.

The second field, i.e. functional styles, cannot avoid discussion of such most general linguistic issues as oral and written varieties of language, the notion of literary language, the constituents of texts larger than the sentence, the generative aspect of literary texts and some others.

In dealing with the objectives of stylistics, certain pronouncements of adjacent disciplines such as theory of information, literature, logic and to some extent statistics must be touched upon. This is indispensable; for nowadays no science is entirely isolated from other domains of human knowledge. The linguistics, particularly its branch stylistics, cannot avoid references to the above-mentioned disciplines because it is confronted with certain overlapping issues.

In linguistics, there are different terms to denote particular means by which utterances are foregrounded, i.e. made more conspicuous, more effective and therefore imparting some additional information. They are called expressive means, stylistic devices, tropes, figures of speech and other names. All these terms are used indiscriminately and are set against those means, which we shall conventionally call neutral. Most linguists distinguish ordinary semantic and stylistic differences in meaning. They distinguish three main levels of expressive means and stylistic devices: phonetic, lexical and syntactical [38, 161-165].

2.1.1 Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices

As it is clear from the title, the stylistic use of phonemes and their graphical representation is viewed here. Dealing with various cases of phonemic and graphemic foregrounding we should not forget the unilateral nature of a phoneme. This language unit helps to differentiate meaningful lexemes but has no meaning of its own. Ex: "sew" [sou] шить and "sew" [ sju: ] спускати воду. The stylistic approach to the utterance is not confined to its structure and sense. There is another thing to be taken into account, which plays an important role. This is the way a word, a phrase or a sentence sounds. The sound of most words taken separately will have little or no aesthetic value. It is in combination with other words that a word may acquire a desired phonetic effect. The way a separate word sounds may produce a certain euphonic impression, but this is a matter of individual perception and feeling and therefore subjective. The phonetic structure of the word proves to be important for the creation of expressive and emotive connotations. A message, containing an onomatopoetic word is not limited to transmitting the logical information only, but also supplies the vivid portrayal of the situation described.

2.1.2 Lexical expressive means and stylistic devices

The main function of the word is to denote. Thus, the denotation meaning is the major semantic characteristic of the word. The words in context may acquire additional lexical meanings not fixed in dictionaries. What is known in linguistics as "transferred meaning" is particularly the interrelation between two types of lexical meaning: dictionary and contextual. When the deviation from the acknowledged meaning is carried to a degree that it causes an unexpected turn in the recognised logical meanings, we register a stylistic device. Each art has its own medium, i.e. its own material substance. Colours are the material substance of painting, sounds-the material substance of music. It is the language that is the material substance of literature. But language consists of colours and sounds due to the existence of expressive means and stylistic device [18, 9-11].

The most essential feature of the word is that it expresses the concept of a thing, process, phenomenon, denoting them. Concept is a logical category, its linguistic counterpart is meaning. Meaning is the unity of generalization, communication and thinking. An entity of extreme complexity, the meaning of the word is liable to historical changes, which are responsible for the formation of an expanded semantic structure of the word. This structure is constituted of various types of lexical meanings, the major one is denotational, which informs the subject of communication; and also including connotational, which informs about the participants and condition of communication [9, 48].

2.1.3 Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices

Stylistic study of the syntax begins with the study of the length and the structure of the sentence. Stylistic syntactical patterns may be viewed as variants of the general syntactical models of the language and are the more obvious and conspicuous if presented not as isolated elements or accidental usage, but as group easily observable and lending themselves to generalisation.

This brief outline of the most characteristic features of the language styles and their variants will show that out of the number of features which are easily discernible in each of the styles, some should be considered primary and others secondary; some obligatory, others optional; some constant, others transitory. It appears, the length of any language unit is a very important factor in information exchange, for the human brain can receive and transmit information only if the latter is punctuated by pauses. Theoretically speaking a sentence can be of any length, as there are no linguistic limitations for its growth, so even monstrous constructions of several hundred words each, technically should be viewed as sentences. A member of the sentence fulfils one syntactical function. When syntactical ambivalence is preserved by certain members of a sentence which fact creates semantic ambiguity for it allows at least two different readings of the sentence.

Sometimes syntactical ambivalence, like the play on words on the lexical level, is intentional and is used to achieve a humorous effect. Ex: "Do you expect me to sleep with you in the room?" Depending on the function of "with you" the sentence may be read, "to sleep with you in the room" (and not in the field, or in the garden) or "to sleep with you in the room" (and not alone). The solution lies with the reader and is explicatedin oral communication by the corresponding pausation and intonation. To convey them in the written form of speech order of words and punctuation are used.

The syntactical meanings play serious role in the prose and it is worthy of attention during act of translation. It includes more bright and vivid units of the language [2, 168-170].

2.2 Lexical expressive means and stylistic devices

Each art has its own medium, i.e. its own material substance. Colours are the material substance of painting, sounds-the material substance of music. It is the language that is the material substance of literature. But language consists of colours and sounds due to the existence of expressive means and stylistic devices.

Language is capable of transmitting practically any kind of information. It has names for all things, phenomena and relations of objective reality. It is so close to life that an illusion of their almost complete identity is created, for man lives, works and thinks in the medium of language. His behaviour finds an important means of expression primarily in language. In the present chapter we shall analyse some lexical expressive means and stylistic devices used by Oscar Wilde in his plays.

Epigram and Paradox

The majority critics of the nineteenth century agree that Wilde is the most paradoxical writer of his time. According to professor V.B. Sosnovskaya, paradox based on contrast, being a statement contradictory to what is accepted as a self-evident or proverbial truth.

The appeal of paradox lies in the fact that, however contradictory it may seem to be to the accepted maxim, it contains nevertheless, a certain grain of truth, which makes it an excellent vehicle of satire. Indeed, it is a device much favoured by many English and American satirists. Paradox can be considered a figure of speech with certain reservations, since the aesthetic principle, that underlies it, i.e. contrast has divers linguistic manifestations [34, 3-5].

According to professor I.R. Galperin, 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. In other words, we are always aware of the parentage of an epigram and therefore, when using one, we usually make a reference to its author [17, 10-21].

Epigrams and paradoxes as stylistic devices are used for creating generalised images. Usually it is the Present Indefinite Tense. This form of the verb makes paradoxes and epigrams abstract.

"Men marry because they are tired,

women because they are curious.

Both are disappointed" [42, 158].

"Штовхає втома чоловіків на шлюб,

та зацікавленість жінок

завершує все ж розпачі танок" [48, 15].

"Nothing spoils a romance so much as

sense of humour in the woman" [42, 160].

"Якщо жіноцтво почуття гумору не залишає,

від цього гине романтичність" [63, 30].

"Women are pictures,

Men are problems" [42, 164].

"Жінки - це поеми,

Чоловіки - це всі проблеми" [63, 17].

In Wilde's paradoxes and epigrams the verb "to be" is widely used. This verb intensifies the genetic function and makes aphorisms and paradoxes humorous. It makes also the ironical definition of phenomena of life.

"Curious thing, plain women are always jealous

of their husbands, beautiful women never are"[42, 10].

"Цікава річ: негарні жінки з ревнощів умирають,

Красуні ж всі свободу обирають" [65, 30].

"The men are all dowdies and the women

are all dandies" [42, 186].

"Чоловіки не мають зовнішній талант,

І лише жінка вся блищіть, як діамант" [63 28].

Another means which helps to create the generalisation is the choice of words. Wilde often resorts to the use of some abstract notions, concrete notions are rare.

"Experience is a question of instinct

about life" [42, 72].

"Досвід - це питання інстинкту щодо життя,

Все інше це фантазій маяття"[48, 38].

All kinds of works - intensifiers, such as "Never, always, often" are used by Oscar Wilde for creating the abstractness and generalisation.

"Questions are never indiscreet.

Answers sometimes are" [63, 18].

"Не можна вразити питанням чоловіка

І лише відповідь вкорочує нам віку" [48, 38].

"All men are married women's property" [73, 31].

"Чоловіки одружуються всі із власністю жінок" [63, 22].

For creating the abstractness Wilde also uses such words as "men, women, people, we, one", etc.

"One should never trust a woman who tells one

her real age" [42, 110].

"Не довіряйте тим жінкам,

які свій справжній вік говорять нам" [74, 38].

"People are either hunting for husbands, or hiding

from them" [42,181].

"Полювання на чоловіків або втеча від них,

Є тим моментом, що з'єднує всих" [48, 47].

One of the most characteristic and essential features of epigrams and paradoxes is their shortness and conciseness. They are achieved by the syntactical pattern of an epigram or paradox. The syntax of these stylistic devices is laconic and clear - cut.

"Do not use bid words. They mean so little" [42, 152].

"Уникай помпезних слів,

Бо мало вони значать у нашому житті!" [48, 87].

In these examples we can see the parallel constructions widely used by Oscar Wilde. They serve a perfect means of creating the clear-cut syntax of epigrams and paradoxes. During translation into Ukrainian, we can widely observe this factor too. Sourse words are conveying their meaning into target words do not losing their meaning.

Another peculiarity of Wilde's epigrams and paradoxes is his use of such construction as "that is the difference…"

"Cecil Graham: Oh, wicked women bother one. Good

women bore one. That is the difference between them"

[42, 68].

Сесіл Грем: "До розпачу доводять злі жінки,

а добрі набридають залюбки!

Судити нам про це годиться,

Ото така між ними є різниця" [74, 56].

"Lord Illingworth: we men know life too early.

Mrs. Arbuthnot: And we women know life too late. That

is the difference between men and women" [63, 15].

Лорд Іллінгуос: "Життя пізнається чоловіком зарано"

Місіс Арбуснот: "За пізно жінки його пізнають"

І хоч життя у них єдине, різниця ця іх не псує" [48, 40].

This phrase "That is the difference…" seems to sum up the whole epigram or paradox. With the help of this phrase, Oscar Wilde tries to show how great the difference is between the two objects or phenomena compared. Some of Wilde's paradoxes and epigrams are formed with the help of contextual antonyms and contrasting pairs:

Men become old, but they never become good" [42, 133].

"Навіть з віком чоловіки не змінюються" [74, 44].

One of the most important functions of epigrams and paradoxes is that of speech characterisation. But Wilde's epigrams and paradoxes have another important function also. It is the showing of bourgeois morality. With the help of his epigrams and paradoxes, the author shows us his characters, their way of life, manners, their thoughts and the bourgeois society of his time.

In these four Wilde's plays, there is a group of people such as Lady Bracknell, Mrs. Cheveley, Lord Illingworth and others, whose behaviour and way of life give us a clear picture of the upper-class society. These very people with their paradoxes and epigrams open their thoughts and feelings.

"The world was made for men and not for women" [63, 17].

"Cвіт створений для чоловіків, але не для жінок" [74, 56].

During translation the works by Wild into Ukrainian, we can see the corruptibility of the ruling classes, their mean, shallow spirited interests, and their intrigues against each other. At first sight, they seem to be real gentlemen and ladies. But in fact they are spoiled people who try to achieve their aims, however bad and selfish they sometimes may be, at all costs.

"Sir Robert Chiltern: Every man of ambition has to fight his

century with its own weapons. What this century worships is

wealth. The God of this century is wealth" [63, 10].

Сер Роберт Чіл терн: "Честолюбива людина

має вести свою боротьбу з притаманною щодо

його життя зброєю.

Зброя нашого часу - це багатство і,

Бог нашого часу - це богатство" [74, 39].

During translation the author, use the same word as Wilde. The weapon. It is evident what weapons Sir R. Chiltern means. It is money and the way it is earned by is unimportant. The way of earning money may be different: bribery, blackmail, forgery and other immoral actions. Once Sir Chiltern achieved his aims at the cost of his honour-he sold the secrete information. He had not any regret for what he had done. He said that he had fought the century with his own weapon and won. And when his misdemeanour was revealed, he tried to save himself.

"People are either hunting for husbands or hiding from

them"[63, 18].

"Полювання на чоловіків або втеча від них,

Є тим моментом, що з'єднyє всих " [74, 54].

Most of Wilde's characters are true representatives of their society. They are Lord Darlington, Lady Bracknell and especially Lord Illingworth, a person with cynical attitude towards everything in the world, who does not value the sincere human relations, to whom love, friendship, faithfulness mean nothing. This can be clearly seen from some of his remarks.

"Women love us for our defects"[63, 11].

"Жінки кохають нас за наші недоліки"[74, 28].

"The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that

every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future" [42, 105].

"Святе має минуле, грішне - майбутнє,

І лише ця різниця між ними присутня" [74, 35].

The most favoured subject for Wilde's cynical comments is a woman and her position in the society of that time. And it is clearly seen in translation.

"Nothing spoils a romance so much as a sense of humour in

the woman" [63, 10].

"Ніщо так не псує романтику,

як почуття гумору у жінки" [74, 28].

"You women live by your emotions and for them" [42, 69].

"Жінки живуть з вашими емоціями і для них" [48, 27].

Thus, we can see that epigrams and paradoxes play one of the most important roles in Wilde's plays. With the help of these stylistic devices Wilde reflects his own viewpoints on the society of his time, his opinions about life, love and friendship, men and women. His judgements are the sharp and biting remarks. They are used in the plainest and the most direct sense. Wilde does not conceal his inner feelings and thoughts about the decomposition of intellectual world and English society. These epigrams and paradoxes are short and laconic, and are not very complex that makes them easy for remembering. So, paradoxes and epigrams create the individuality of Oscar Wilde. Wilde is famous for his brilliant epigrams and the wittiest paradoxes, which are constantly used in translation.

Irony and Pun

In irony, which is the very interesting item for consideration, subjectivity lies in the evaluation of the phenomenon named. The essence of this stylistic device consists in the foregrounding not of the logical but of the evaluative meaning. The context is arranged so that the qualifying word in irony reverses the direction of the evaluation, and the word positively charged is understood as a negative qualification and vice versa.

According to professor I.R. Galperin , irony is a stylistic device based on the simultaneous realisation of two logical meanings- dictionary and contextual, but the two meanings stand in opposition to each other [17, 15].

According to Professor V.A. Kukharenko, irony is a stylistic device in which the contextual evaluative meaning of a word is directly opposite to its dictionary meaning. So, like many other stylistic devices, irony does not exist outside the context. Irony must not be confused with humour, although they have very much in common. Humour always causes laughter. What is funny must come as a sudden clash of the positive and the negative. In this respect irony can be likened to humour. But the function of irony is not confined to producing a humorous effect. In a sentence like that: "How clever you are, Mr.Hopper" where due to the intonation pattern, the word "clever" conveys a sense opposite to its literal signification. The irony does not cause a ludicrous effect. It rather expresses a feeling of irritation and displeasure. Here are some examples of irony [3, 20].

"Oh, I love London Society! I think it has immensely

improved. It is entirely composed now of beautiful

idiots and brilliant lunatics. Just what Society

should be" [63, 26].

"О! Як я кохаю лондонський світ,

Він так покращився і зараз,

У ньому лише прекрасні дурні

Та сяючі навіжені -

Таким і повинен бути світ" [48, 8].

These examples show that irony is a mode of speech in which the opposite of what is said is meant. The speaker of the first example, Mabel Chiltern does not really think that it is good for London Society to consist of "beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics". Wilde's method of ironical usage is mostly direct: he speaks of the decomposition of people, their ideals and values. The effect of irony lies in the striking disparity between what is said and what is meant. This is achieved through the intentional interplay of two meanings, which are in opposition to each other.

"I knew we should come to an amicable agreement" [47, 20].

"Я знаю, що ми повинні дійти дружньої згоди" [74, 39].

The context is one most important thing when we use irony. The word "advice" is suggested for acceptance if it is good and for rejection if it is not good, but not for passing on it. In fact, Lord Goring, the speaker of this phrase, is a serious person, who knows that a good advice may be very useful [38, 83].

"People are either hunting for husbands or hiding from them" [ 63, 38].

"Полювання на чоловіків або втеча від них,

Є тим моментом, що з'єднує всіх" [74, 37] .

The remarks of this "Lady" characterise her brilliantly. We can clearly see a scheming woman, an adventurer, who stops at nothing in gaining her filthy aims. She does not show her real face, she always disguises it. But her cynical remarks betray her. Another example of irony used by O. Wilde and it is also presented in translation.