Part VI. Functional Styles of the English Language 1 страница

Introductory Remarks 249

A. The Belles-Lettres Style 250

Language of Poetry 252

Compositional Patterns of Rhythmical Arrangement 252

Metre and Line 252

The Stanza 258

Free Verse and Accented Verse 261

Lexical and Syntactical Features of Verse... 264

Emotive Prose. 270

Language of the Drama 281

Publistic Style 287

Oratory and Speeches 288

The Essay 293

Journalistic Articles z™

Newspaper Style (written by V. L. Nayer) 295

Brief News Items 2^8

Advertisements and Announcements 301

Headline 302

Editorial 305

Scientific Prose Style 307

Style of Official Documents 312

Notes on the Theory of Text and Procedures of Stylistic Analysis 318

INTRODUCTION

PART I

1. GENERAL NOTES ON STYLE AND STYLISTICS

Stylistics, sometimes called linguo-stylistics, is a branch of general linguistics. It has now been 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 and 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 the literary (standard) 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, psychology, 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; and linguistics, particularly its branch stylistics, cannot avoid references, to the above mentioned disciplines because it is confronted with certain overlapping issues.

The branching off of stylistics in language science was indirectly the result of a long-established tendency of grammarians to confine their investigations to sentences, clauses and word-combinations which are "well-formed", to use a dubious term, neglecting anything that did not fall under the recognized and received standards. This tendency became particularly strong in what is called descriptive linguistics. The generative grammars, which appeared as a reaction against descriptive linguistics, have confirmed that the task of any grammar is to limit {he scope of investigation of language data to sentences which are considered well-formed. Everything that fails to meet this requirement should be excluded from linguistics.

But language studies cannot avoid subjecting to observation any language data whatever, so where grammar refuses to tread stylistics steps in. Stylistics has acquired its own status with its own inventory of tools (SDs and EMs), with its own object of investigation and with its own methods of research.

The stylistics of a highly developed language like English or Russian has brought into the science of language a separate body of media, thus widening the range of observation of phenomena in language. The significance of this branch of linguistics can hardly be over-estimated. A number of events in the development of stylistics must be mentioned here as landmarks. The first is the discussion of the problem of style and stylistics in "Вопросы языкознания" in 1954, in which many important general and particular problems were broadly analysed and some obscure aspects elucidated. Secondly, a conference on Style in Language was held at Indiana University in the spring of 1958, followed by the publication of the proceedings of this conference (1960) under the editorship of Thomas Sebeok. Like the discussion in " Вопросы языкознания " this conference revealed the existence of quite divergent points of view held by different students of language and literature. Thirdly, a conference on style and stylistics was held in the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages in March 1969. At this conference lines were drawn along which studies in linguo-stylistics might be maintained. An interesting symposium was also held in Italy, the proceedings of which were published under the editorship of professor S. Chatman in 1971.

A great number of monographs, textbooks, articles, and dissertation papers are now at the disposal of a scholar in stylistics. The stream of information grows larger every month. Two American journals appear regularly, which may keep the student informed as to trends in the theory of stylistics. They are Style issued at the Arkansas University (U.S.A.) and Language and Style published in Southern Illinois University (U.S.A.) (See also the bibliography on p. 324).

It is in view of the ever-growing significance of the exploration of language potentialities that so much attention is paid in linguo-stylistics to the analysis of expressive means (EMs) and stylistic devices (SDs), to their nature and functions, to their classification and to possible interpretations of additional meanings they may carry in a message as well as their aesthetic value.

In order to ascertain the borders of stylistics it is necessary to go at some length into the question of what is style.

The word style is derived from the Latin word 'stilus' 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' is used in so many senses that it has become a breeding ground for ambiguity. The word is applied to the teaching of how to write a composition (see below); it is also used to reveal the correspondence between thought and expression; it frequently denotes an individual manner of making use of language; it sometimes refers to more general, abstract notions thus inevitably becoming vague and obscure, as, for example, "Style is the man himself" (Buffon), "Style is depth" (Darbyshire); "Style is deviations" (Enkvist); "Style is choice", and the like.

All these ideas directly or indirectly bear on issues in stylistics. Some of them become very useful by revealing the springs which make our utterances emphatic, effective and goal-directed. It will therefore not come amiss to quote certain interesting observations regarding style made by different writers from different angles. Some of these observations are dressed up as epigrams or sententious maxims like the ones quoted above. Here are some more of them.

"Style is a quality of language which communicates precisely emotions or thoughts, or a system of emotions or thoughts, peculiar to the author." (J. Middleton Murry)

"... a true idiosyncrasy of style is the result of an author's success In compelling language to conform to his mode of experience." (J. Middleton Murry)

"Style is a contextually restricted linguistic variation." (Enkvist) "Style is a selection of non-distinctive features of language." (L. Bloom-field)

"Style is simply synonymous with form or expression and hence a superfluous term." (Benedetto Croce)

"Style is essentially a citational process, a body of formulae, a memory (almost in the cybernetic sense of the word), a cultural and not an expressive inheritance." (Roland Barthes)

Some linguists consider that the word 'style' and the subject of linguistic stylistics is confined to the study of the effects of the message, I.e. its impact on the reader. Thus Michael Riffaterre writes that "Stylistics will be a linguistics of the effects of the message, of the output of the act of communication, of its attention-compelling function". This point of view has clearly been reached under the influence of recent developments in the general theory of information. Language, being one of the means of communication or, to be exact, the most important means of communication, is regarded in the above quotation from a pragmatic point of view. Stylistics in that case is regarded as a language science which deals with the results of the act of communication.

To a very considerable degree this is true. Stylistics must take into consideration the "output of the act of communication". But stylistics must also investigate the ontological, i.e. natural, inherent, and functional peculiarities of the means of communication which may ensure the effect sought.

Archibald A. Hill states that "A current definition of style and stylistics is that structures, sequences, and patterns which extend, or may extend, beyond the boundaries of individual sentences define style, and that the study of them is stylistics."1

The truth of this approach to style and stylistics lies in the fact that the author concentrates on such phenomena in language as present a system, in other words, on facts which are not confined to individual use.

The most frequent definition of style is one expressed by Seymour Chatman: "Style is a product of individual choices and patterns of choices (emphasis added) among linguistic possibilities."

This definition indirectly deals with the idiosyncrasies peculiar to a given writer. Somehow it fails to embrace such phenomena in text structure where the 'individual' is reduced to the minimum or even done away with entirely (giving preference to non-individualistic forms in using language means). However, this definition is acceptable when applied to the ways men-of-letters use language when they seek to make it conform to their immediate aims and purport. A somewhat broader view of style is expressed by Werner Winter who maintains that "A style may be said to be characterized by a pattern of recurrent selections from the inventory of optional features of a language. Various types of selection can be found: complete exclusion of an optional element, obligatory inclusion of a feature optional elsewhere, varying degrees of inclusion of a specific variant without complete elimination of competing features."

The idea of taking various types of selection as criteria for distinguishing styles seems to be a sound one. It places the whole problem on a solid foundation of objective criteria, namely, the interdependence of optional and obligatory features.

There is no point in quoting other definitions of style. They are too many and too heterogeneous to fall under one more or less satisfactory unified notion. Undoubtedly all these diversities in the understanding of the word 'style' stem from its ambiguity. But still all these various definitions leave an impression that by and large they all have something in common. All of them point to some integral significance, namely, that style is a set of characteristics by which we distinguish one author from another or members of one subclass from members of other subclasses, all of which are members of the same general class. What are these sets of characteristics typical of a writer or of a subclass of the literary language will be seen in the analysis of the language means of a given writer and of the subclasses of the general literary standard.

Another point the above quotations have in common is that all of I hem concentrate on the form of the expression almost to the detriment of the content. In other words, style is regarded as something that belongs exclusively to the plane of expression and not to the plane of content. This opinion predominantly deals with the correspondence between the intention of the writer whoever he may be—a man of letters, the writer of a diplomatic document, an article in a newspaper, or a scientific treatise—and the effect achieved. The evaluation is also based on whether the choice of language means conforms with the most general pattern of the given type of text—a novel, a poem, a letter, a document,.in article, an essay and so on.

It follows then that the term 'style', being ambiguous, needs a restricting adjective to denote what particular aspect of style we intend to deal with. It is suggested here that the term individual style should be applied to that sphere of linguistic and literary science which deals with the peculiarities of a writer's individual manner of using language means to achieve the effect he desires. Deliberate choice must be distinguished from a habitual idiosyncrasy in the use of language units; every individual has his own manner and habits of using them. The speech of an individual which is characterized by peculiarities typical of that particular individual is called an idiolect. The idiolect 1 should be distinguished from what we call individual style, inasmuch as the word 'style' presupposes a deliberate choice.

When Buffon coined his famous saying which, due to its epigrammatical form, became a by-word all over the world, he had in mind the idiolect, i.e. those qualities of speech which are inherent and which reveal a man's breeding, education, social standing, etc. All these factors are, however, undoubtedly interwoven with individual style. A man's breeding and education will always affect his turn of mind and therefore will naturally be revealed in his speech and writing. But a writer with a genuine individual style will as much as possible avoid those language peculiarities which point to his breeding and education in order to leave room for that deliberate choice of language means which will secure the effect sought.

It follows then that the individual style of a writer is marked by its uniqueness. It can be recognized by the specific and peculiar combination of language media and stylistic devices which in their interaction present a certain system. This system derives its origin from the creative spirit, and elusive though it may seem, it can nevertheless be ascertained. Naturally, the individual style of a writer will never be entirely independent of the literary norms and canons of the given period. When we read novels by Swift or Fielding we can easily detect features common to both writers. These features are conditioned by the general literary canons of the period and cannot therefore be neglected. But the adaptations of these canons will always be peculiar and therefore distinguishable. Alexander Blok said that the style of a writer is so closely connected with the content of his soul, that the experienced eye can see the soul through his style, and by studying the form penetrate to the depth of the content.1 The idea of this subtle remark can be interpreted in the following way:—the style of a writer can be ascertained only by analysis of the form, i.e. language media. To analyse the form in order to discover the idiosyncrasies of a writer's style is not an easy, but a rewarding task. Approaches to components of individuality such as 1) composition of larger-than-the-sentence units (see p. 193), 2) rhythm and melody of utterances, 3) system of imagery, 4) preferences for definite stylistic devices and their co-relation with neutral language media, 5) interdependence of the language media employed by the author and the media characteristic of the personages, are indispensable.

The language of a writer is sometimes regarded as alien to linguo-stylistics. Here is what V. M. 2irmunsky writes: "The language of a writer can hardly be considered an object of linguo-stylistics. If analysed outside the problem of style (the style of the work, the writer, the literary trend or the literary era), the language falls into a mass of words, collocations and grammatical facts, which taken in isolation will serve as but unreliable evidence as to the life of the given language in the given period of its development."

However, observations of the ways language means are employed by different writers, provided no claim is made to defining the individual style as a whole, may greatly contribute to the investigation of the ontological nature of these means by throwing light on their potentialities and ways of functioning. The individuality of a writer's style is shown in a peculiar treatment of language means.

In this connection it is worth referring to Flaubert's notion on style. He considers style, as it were, non-personal, its merits being dependent on the power of thought and on the acuteness of the writer's perceptions. The same idea, only slightly modified, is expressed by J. Middleton Murry who said that "A true style must be unique, if we understand by the phrase 'a true style' a completely adequate expression in language of a writer's mode of feeling."

In discussing the problem of individual style let us make it clear from the outset that the problem itself is common ground for literature and linguistics. However, inasmuch as language is the only media to accommodate poetic messages, it is necessary to go at some length into the domain of individual style, it being the testing ground for language means.

The individual style of an author is frequently identified with the general, generic term 'style'. But as has already been pointed out, style is a much broader notion. The individual style of an author is only one of the applications of the general term 'style'. The analysis of an author's language seems to be the most important procedure in estimating his individual style. This is obvious not only because language is the only means available to convey the author's ideas to the reader in precisely the way he intends, but also because writers unwittingly contribute greatly to establishing the norms of the literary language of a given period. In order to compel the language to serve his purpose, the writer draws on its potential resources in a way different from what we see in ordinary speech.

This peculiarity in the manner of using language means in poetry and emotive prose has given rise to the notion of Style as Deviance. Most illustrative of this tendency is George Saintsbury's statement made as far back as 1895: "It is in the breach or neglect of the rules that govern the structure of clauses, sentences, and paragraphs that the real secret of style consists..."2

The same idea is expressed by G. Vandryes, one of the prominent linguists of today, who states that "The belles-lettres style is always a reaction against the common language; to some extent it is a jargon, a literary jargon, which may have varieties."3

The idea has a long history. In the 1920s there arose a trend which was named formalism in literature and which has crucial relevance to present-day endeavours to analyse the role of form in embodying matter. Several literary critics representative of this school as well as a number of writers maintained the idea that language sometimes imposes intolerable constraints on freedom of thought. Hence all kinds of innovations were introduced into the language which sometimes not only disagree with the established norms of the language, but actually depart from them in principle. The result in many cases is that the language steps over the threshold of the reader's ability to perceive the message.

The essential property, indeed, merit of a truly genuine individual style is its conformity to the established norms of the language system in their idiosyncratic variations. This uniqueness of the individual style of an author is not easy to observe. It is due not only to the peculiar choice of words, sentence-structures and stylistic devices, but also to the incomparable manner these elements are combined.

It is hardly possible to under estimate the significance of a minute analysis of the language of a writer when approaching the general notion of his style. The language will inevitably reveal some of the author's idiosyncrasies in the use of language means. Moreover, the author's choice of language means reflects to a very considerable extent the idea of the work as a whole. Nowhere can the linguist observe the hidden potentialities of language means more clearly than through a scrupulous analysis of the ways writers use these means.

But for the linguist the importance of studying an author's individual style is not confined to penetration into the inner properties of language means and stylistic devices. The writers of a given period in the development of the literary language contribute greatly to establishing the system of norms of their period. It is worth a passing note that the investigations of language norms at a given period are to a great extent maintained on works of men-of-letters.

One of the essential properties of a truly individual style is its permanence. It has great powers of endurance. It is easily recognized and never loses its aesthetic value. The form into which the ideas are wrought assumes a greater significance and therefore arrests our attention. The language of a truly individual style becomes de-automatized. It may be said that the form, i.e. the language means themselves, generate meaning. This will be shown later when we come to analyse the nature and functions of stylistic devices.

The idea of individual style brings up the problem of the correspondence between thought and expression. Many great minds have made valuable observations on the interrelation between these concepts. There is a long list of books in which the problem is discussed from logical, psychological, philosophical, aesthetic, pragmatic and purely linguistic points of view. Here we shall only point out the most essential sides of the problem, viz. a) thought and language are inseparable; b) language is a means of materializing thought. It follows then that the stylicist cannot neglect this interrelation when analysing the individual style of an author. But it is one thing to take into account a certain phenomenon as a part of a general notion and another thing to substitute one notion for another. To define style as the result of thinking out into language would be on the same level as to state that all we say is style. The absurdity of this statement needs no comment.

The problem of the correspondence between matter and form (which are synonymous for thought and expression) finds its most effective wording in the following: "To finish and complete your thought!.. How long it takes, how rare it is, what an immense delight!.. As soon as a thought has reached its full perfection, the word springs into being, offers itself, and clothes the thought."1

Naturally such a poetical representation of the creative process should not be taken literally. There is a certain amount of emotional charge in it and this, as is generally the case, obscures to some extent the precision which a definition must have. However, it is well known that the search for an adequate expression often takes an enormous amount of time and mental effort. This idea is brilliantly expressed by V. Mayakovsky: "Поэзия та же добыча радия. В грамм добычи – в год труды. Изводишь единого слова ради – тысячи тонн словесной руды."

The genuine character of the individual style of an author is not necessarily manifest from the tricky or elaborate expressions he uses.

Some forms of the language which pass unobserved even by an experienced reader due to their seeming insignificance in the general system of language may be turned into marked elements by the creative mind of the writer. Sometimes these 'insignificant' elements of the language scattered in the text are the bearers of the author's idiosyncratic bias. This is particularly true of the ways Hemingway, Faulkner and other modern writers have made use of language means, reflecting, as it were, the general tendency of trends in modern English and American literature. According to the observations of many a literary critic, the style of modern literary works is much more emotionally excited, 'dishevelled', incoherent than that of Dickens, Thackeray, Galsworthy. The language of some ultra-modern writers to some extent reflects the rapidly increasing tempo of the present industrial and technical revolution. Sensitive to the pulsation of social life in the country, they experiment with language means so as to mirror the vibration of extra-linguistic reality.

In every individual style we can find both the general and the particular. The greater the author is, the more genuine his style will be. If we succeed in isolating and examining the choices which the writer prefers, we can define what are the particulars that makeup his style and make it recognizable.

At the same time the linguist will be able to discern those potentialities of language means which hitherto were latent or, at the most, used only occasionally.

The individuality of a writer is shown not only in the choice of lexical, syntactical and stylistic means but also in their treatment. It is really remarkable how a talented writer can make us feel the way he M wants us to feel. This co-experience is built up so subtly that the reader remains unaware of the process. It is still stronger when the aesthetic function begins to manifest itself clearly and unequivocally through a gradual increase in intensity, in the foregrounding of certain features, repetitions of certain syntactical patterns and in the broken rhythm of the author's mode of narrating events, facts and situations.

What we here call individual style, therefore, is a unique combination of language units, expressive means and stylistic devices peculiar to a given writer, which makes that writer's works or even utterances easily recognizable. Hence, individual style may be likened to a proper name. It has nominal character. The analogy is, of course, conventional, but it helps to understand the uniqueness of the writer's idiosyncrasy. Individual style is based on a thorough knowledge of the contemporary language and also of earlier periods in its development.

Individual style allows certain justifiable deviations from the rigorous norms. This, needless to say, presupposes a perfect knowledge of the invariants of the norms.

Individual style requires to be studied in a course of stylistics in so far as it makes use of the potentialities of language means, whatever the character of these potentialities may be. But it goes without saying that each author's style should be analysed separately, which is naturally impossible in a book on general stylistics.

Selection, or deliberate choice of language, and the ways the chosen elements are treated are the main distinctive features of individual style. The treatment of the selected elements brings up the problem of the norm. The notion of the norm mainly refers to the literary language and always presupposes a recognized ox received standard. At the same time it likewise presupposes vacillations of the received standard.

In order to get a workable definition of the norm for the purposes set in this book and, particularly, in connection with the issue of individual style, it will be necessary to go a little bit deeper into the concept.

We shall begin with the following statement made by Academician L. V. Scherba:

"Very often when speaking of norms people forget about stylistic norms (emphasis added) which are no less, if not more, important than all others."

This pronouncement clearly indicates that there is no universally accepted norm of the standard literary language, that there are different norms and that there exist special kinds of norm which are called stylistic norms. Indeed, it has long been acknowledged that the norms of the spoken and the written varieties of language differ in more than one respect (see p. 35). Likewise it is perfectly apparent that the norms of emotive prose and those of official language are heterogeneous. Even within what is called the belles-lettres style of language (see p. 33—34) we can observe different norms between, for instance, poetry and drama.

In this connection I. Vachek of the Prague School of Linguistics states that "ft is necessary to reject the possibility of the existence of an abstract, universal norm which subordinates written and oral norms in any of the natural languages."

The same view is expressed by M. A. K- Halliday who states:

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