Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices

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Lecture 4

Syntactical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices

Plan

1. The Sentence from a Stylistic Point of View

2. Stylistic Inversion

3. Detached Constructions (Detachment)

4. Parallel Constructions Chiasmus [kai'жzm?s]

1. The Sentence from a Stylistic Point of View

The relations between words, word - combinations, sentences and also between larger spans of utterances are studied by the branch of language acience Known as Syntax.

In the domain of stylistics takes as the object of its analysis the expressive means and SDs of the language which are based on some significant structural point in a utterance, whether it consists of one sentence or a string of sentences.

The syntactical aspect is sometimes regarded as the crucial issue in stylistic analysis and syntax itself is figuratively called the “sinews of style.”

Stylistic study of the syntax begins with the study of the length and structure of a sentence.

Theoretically speaking a sentence can be of any length - up to several hundred words (as is the case with the syntactical whole comprising 631 words in N. Mailers “Why are we in Vietnam?”)

The upper limit of a sentence is one word. Adrupt changes from long sentences to short ones and back again, create a very strong effect of tension and suspense for they serve to arrange a nervous, uneven, ragged rhythm of the utterance.

Cf.: “They could keep the Minden Street Shop going unit they got the notice to quit; Or they could wait and see what kind of alternative premises were offered. If the site was good. - If. Or and, quite inevitably, borrowing money.” (J. Braine).

There is no direct or immediate correlations between the length and the structure of a sentence: short sentences may be structurally complicated, while the long ones, on the contrary, may have only one subject - predicate pair.

Cf.: “Through the windows of the drug - store Eighth street looked extremely animated with families trooping toward the center of the town, flags aslant in children's hands, mother and pa in holiday attire and sweating freely, with patriarchal automobiles of neighboring farmers full of starched youngsters and draped with bunting” (J. Reed)

Almost 50 words of this sentence cluster around one subject - predicate centre “Eighth street looked animated.”

At the same time very short sentences may boast of two and more classes, i.e. may be complex, as we observe in the following cases:

“He promised he'd come if the cops leave” (J. Baldwin)

“Their father who was the poorest man in town kept turning to the same jokes when he was treated to a beer or two” (A. Saxton)

Not only the clarity and understadibilitity of the sentence but also its expressiveness depend on the position of clauses constituting it. So, if a sentence opens with the main clause, which is following by dependent units such a structure is called loose, is less emphatic and is highly characteristic of informal writing and conversation. Periodic sentences, on the contrary, open with subordinated classes, absolute and participial constructions, the main clause being withheld until the end. Such structures are known for their emphasis and are used mainly in emotive prose.

Similar structuring of the beginning of the sentence and its end produces balanced sentences known for stressing the logic and reasoning of the content and thus preferred in publicistic writing.

Examples:

1. I am a part of all that I have touched and that has touched me, which having for me no existence save that I gave to it, became other than itself …

2. Such being at bottom the fact, I think it is well leave it at that (S. Mangham).

3. Strolling up and down the Main Street, talking in little groups on the corners, in and out of strike headquarters were hundreds of big strong - faced miners in their Sunday best (J. Reed).

2. Stylistic Inversion

The English language is characterized by fixed word order (S - P - O). The change of this fixed word order (i.e. placing the link verb before its subject, piecing the predicate before the subject, etc.) is a called inversion.

In stylistic inversion the direct word order is changed either completely so that the predicate precedes the subject, or partially so that the object precedes the subject-predicate pair. Correspondingly, we differentiate between a partial and a complete inversion. syntax sentence construction pfrallel

Partial In: in Dickens' much quoted sentence:

“Talent Mr. Micawber has; capital Mr. Mivawber has not Conplete Inv.:

Out came the chase - in went the horses - on sprang the boys - in got the travelers.

The stylistical device of inversion should not be confused with is a norm in interrogative constructions. Stylistic inversion deals with the rearrangement of the normative word order. Question may also be rearranged: “Your mother is at home?” asks one of the character of J. Baldwin's novel. The inverted question presupposes the answer with more certainly than the normative one. It is the assuredness of the speaker of the positive answer that constitutes additional information which is brought into question by the inverted word order. Interrogative constructions with the direct word order may be viewed as cases of two-step (double) inversion direct w / o > grammatical inversion > direct w / o.

Stylistic inversion aims at attaching logical stress or additional emotional colouring to the surface meaning of the utterance. Cf.:

In she plunged boldly,

No matter how coldly

the rough river ran … (Th. Hood)

Inversion as a stylistic device is always sense-motivated.

Galperin points out five most common and recognized models inversion, characteristic of both English prose and English poetry. (p. 204 - 205)

1. The object is placed at the beginning of the sentence (the example with “Micawber”.)

2. The attribute is placed after the word it modifies, especially when there is more that one attribute, for example: “With fingers weary and worn …” (I. Hood)

3. a) The predicative is placed before the subject, as in “A good generous prayer it was” (M. Twain) or b) the predicative stands before the link-verb and both are placed before the subject, as in

“Rudeam I in my speech …” (Shakespeare).

4. The adverbial modifier is placed at the beginning of the sentence, as in

“Eagerly wished the morrow” (Poe)

“My dearest daughter, at your feet I fall”

5. Both modifier and predicate stand before the subject, as in

“In wont Mr. Pikwick” (Dickens)

3. Detached Constructions (Detachment)

Detached construction is such construction which by some specific consideration of the writer is placed so that it seems formally independent of the word it logically refers to. Technically this SD is based on singling out a secondary members of the sentence with the help of punctuation (intonation). The word-order here is not violated, but secondary members obtain their own stress and intonation because they are detached from the rest of the sentence by commas, dashes or even a full stop as in the following cases:

“He had been nearly killed, ingloriously, in a jeep accident” (I. Shaw)

“I Have to beg you for money. Daily.” (S. Lewis)

Both “ingloriously” and “daily” remain adverbial modifiers, occupy their proper normative places, following the modified verbs, but - due to detachment and the ensuing additional pause and stress are fore grounded into the focus of the reader's attention.

4. Parallel Construction (Parallelism) Chiasmus [kai'жzm?s]

In parallel constructions we deal with the reiteration [ri(:),t? n] of the structure of several successive sentences (clauses)

The necessary condition in parallel construction is identical, or similar, syntactical structure in two or more sentences or parts of a sentence e.g.

The cock is crowing,

The stream is flowing,

The small birds twitter,

The lake doth glitter (Wordsnorth)

Parallel construction almost always include some type of lexical repetition too, and such a convergence produces a very strong effect, fore grounding at one go logical, rhythmic, emotive and expressive aspects of the utterance.

Parallel constructions may be partial or complete. Partial parallel arrangement is the repetition of some parts of successive sentences or clauses. Complete parallel arrangement maintains the principle of identical structures throughout the corresponding sentences.

Reversed parallelism is called chiasmus. The second part of a chiasmus is, in fact, inversion of the first construction:

“Down dropped the breeze,

The sails dropped down” (Coleridge)

Chiasmus is sometimes achieved by a sudden change from active voice to passive or vice versa, for example:

“The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker and the chief mourner. Scrooge Signed it” (Dickens)

Chiasmus is sometimes used to break the monotony of parallel constructions. But whatever the purpose of chiasmus, it will always bring in some new shade of meaning or additional emphasis on some portion of the second part.

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