Part VI. Functional Styles of the English Language 11 страница

The structural pattern of the utterance, the pairs of objective antonyms as well as of those on which antonymical meanings are imposed by the force of analogy makes the whole paragraph stylistically significant, and the general device which makes it so is antithesis.

This device is often signalled by the introductory connective but, as in:

"The cold in clime are cold in blood

Their love can scarce deserve the name;

But mine was like a lava flood.

That boils in Etna's breast of flame." (Byron)

When but is used as a signal of antithesis, the other structural signal, the parallel arrangement, may not be evident. It may be unnecessary, as in the example above.

Antithesis is a device bordering between stylistics and logic. The extremes are easily discernible but most of the cases are intermediate. However, it is essential to distinguish between antithesis and what is termed contrast. Contrast is a literary (not a linguistic) device based on logical opposition between the phenomena set one against another. Here is a good example of contrast.

THE RIVER

"The river—with the sunlight flashing from its dancing wavelets, gilding gold the grey-green beech-trunks, glinting through the dark, cool wood paths, chasing shadows o'er the shallows, flinging diamonds from the mill-wheels, throwing kisses to the lilies, wantoning with the weir's white waters, silvering moss-grown walls and bridges, brightening every tiny townlet, making sweet each lane and meadow, lying tangled in the rushes, peeping, laughing, from each inlet, gleaming gay on many a far sail, making soft the air with glory—is a golden fairy stream.

But the river—chill and weary, with the ceaseless rain drops falling on its brown and sluggish waters, with the sound as of a woman, weeping low in some dark chamber, while the woods all dark and silent, shrouded in their mists of vapour, stand like ghosts upon the margin, silent ghosts with eyes reproachful like the ghosts of evil actions, like the ghosts of friends neglected—is a spirit-haunted water through the land of vain regrets." (Jerome K. Jerome)

The two paragraphs are made into one long span of thought by the signal But and the repetition of the word river after which in both cases a pause is indicated by a dash which suggests a different intonation pattern of the word river. The opposing members of the contrast are the 'sunlight flashing' —'ceaseless rain drops falling'; 'gilding gold the grey-green beech-trunks, glinting through the dark, cool wood paths'— 'the woods, all dark and silent, shrouded in their mists of vapour, stand like ghosts...'; 'golden fairy stream'—'spirit-haunted water'.

Still there are several things lacking to show a clear case of a stylistic device, viz. the words involved in the opposition do not display any additional nuance of meaning caused by being opposed one to another; there are no true parallel constructions except, perhaps, the general pattern of the two paragraphs, with all the descriptive parts placed between the grammatical subject and predicate, the two predicates serving as a kind of summing up, thus completing the contrast.

'The river... is a golden fairy stream.'—'But the river... is a spirit-haunted water through the land of vain regrets.' The contrast embodied in these two paragraphs is, however, akin to the stylistic device of antithesis.

Antithesis has the following basic functions: rhythm-forming (because of the parallel arrangement on which it is founded); copulative; dissevering; comparative. These functions often go together and intermingle in their own peculiar manner. But as a rule antithesis displays one of the functions more clearly than the others. This particular function will then be the leading one in the given utterance. An interesting example of antithesis where the comparative function is predominant is the madrigal ascribed to Shakespeare:

A MADRIGAL

"Crabbed age and youth Cannot live together:

Youth is full of pleasance, Age is full of care;

Youth like summer morn, Age like winter weather,

Youth like summer brave, Age like winter bare:

Youth is full of sport, Age's breath is short,

Youth is nimble, Age is lame:

Youth is hot and bold,

Age is weak and cold, Youth is wild, and Age is tame:—

Age, I do abhore thee,

Youth, I do adore thee; O my Love, my Love is young!

Age, I do defy thee—

O sweet shepherd, hie thee.

For methinks thou stay'st too long.

D. PARTICULAR WAYS OF COMBINING PARTS OF THE UTTERANCE (LINKAGE)

Much light can be thrown on the nature of linkage if we do not confine the problem to such notions as coordination and subordination. Most of the media which serve as grammatical forms for combining parts within the sentence have been investigated and expounded in grammars with sufficient clarity and fullness. But sentence-linking features within larger-than-the-sentence structures—SPUs, paragraphs and still larger structures— have so far been very little under observation.

The current of fashion at present, due to problems raised by text-linguistics, runs in the direction of investigating ways and means of combining different stretches of utterances with the aim of disclosing the wholeness of the work. Various scientific papers single out the following media which can fulfil the structural function of uniting various parts of utterances: repetition (anaphora, epiphora, anadiplosis, framing), the definite article, the demonstrative pronouns, the personal pronouns, the use of concord (in number, form of tenses, etc.), adverbial words and phrases (however, consequently, it follows then, etc.), prosodic features (contrastive tone, the "listing" intonation pattern), parallel constructions, chiasmus, sustained metaphors and similes, and a number of other means

The definition of means of combining parts of an utterance, rests on the assumption that any unit of language might, in particular cases, turn into a connective. Such phrases as that is to say, it goes without saying, for the which, however, the preceding statement and the like should also be regarded as connectives. It follows then that the capacity to serve as a connective is an inherent property of a great number of words and phrases if they are set in a position which calls forth continuation of a thought or description of an event.

To follow closely how parts of an utterance are connected and to clarify the type of interdependence between these parts is sometimes difficult either because of the absence of formal signs of linkage (asyndeton), or because of the presence of too many identical signs (polysyndeton).

Asyndeton

Asyndeton, that is, connection between parts of a sentence or between sentences without any formal sign, becomes a stylistic device if there is a deliberate omission of the connective where it is generally expected to be according to the norms of the literary language. Here is an example:

"Soames turned away; he had an utter disinclination for talk, like one standing before an open grave, watching a coffin slowly lowered." (Galsworthy)

The deliberate omission of the subordinate conjunction because or for makes the sentence 'he had an utter...' almost entirely independent. It might be perceived as a characteristic feature of Soames in general, but for the comparison beginning with like, which shows that Soames's mood was temporary.

Here a reminder is necessary that there is an essential difference between the ordinary norms of language, both literary and colloquial, and stylistic devices which are skillfully wrought for special informative and aesthetic purposes. In the sentence:

"Bicket did not answer his throat felt too dry." (Galsworthy) the absence of the conjunction and a punctuation mark may be regarded as a deliberate introduction of the norms of colloquial speech into the literary language. Such structures make the utterance sound like one syntactical unit to be pronounced in one breath group. This determines the intonation pattern.

It is interesting to compare the preceding two utterances from the point of view of the length of the pause between the constituent parts. In the first utterance (Soames...), there is a semicolon which, being the indication of a longish pause, breaks the utterance into two parts. In the second utterance (Bicket...), no pause should be made and the whole of the utterance pronounced as one syntagm.

The crucial problem in ascertaining the true intonation pattern of a sentence composed of two or more parts lies in a deeper analysis of the functions of the connectives, on the one hand, and a more detailed investigation of graphical means—the signals indicating the correct interpretation of the utterance—, on the other.

Polysyndeton

Polysyndeton is the stylistic device of connecting sentences, or phrases, or syntagms, or words by using connectives (mostly conjunctions and propositions) before each component part, as in:

"The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect." (Dickens) In this passage from Longfellow's "The Song of Hiawatha", there is repetition both of conjunctions and prepositions: "Should you ask me, whence these stories?

Whence these legends and traditions, With the odours of the forest, With the dew, and damp of meadows, With the curling smoke of wigwams, With the rushing of great rivers, With their frequent repetitions,..."

The repetition of conjunctions and other means of connection makes an utterance more rhythmical; so much so that prose may even seem like verse. The conjunctions and other connectives, being generally un-i stressed elements, when placed before each meaningful member, will | cause the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables—the essential requirement of rhythm in verse. Hence, one of the functions of polysyndeton is a rhythmical one.

In addition to this, polysyndeton has a disintegrating function. It generally combines homogeneous elements of thought into one whole resembling enumeration. But, unlike enumeration, which integrates both homogeneous and heterogeneous elements into one whole, polysyndeton causes each member of a string of facts to stand out conspicuously. That is why we say that polysyndeton has a disintegrating function. Enumeration shows things united; polysyndeton shows them isolated.

Polysyndeton has also the function of expressing sequence, as in:

"Then Mr. Boffin... sat staring at a little bookcase of Law Practice and Law Reports, and at a window, and at an empty blue bag, and a stick of sealing-wax, and at a pen, and a box of wafers, and an apple, and a writing-pad—all very dusty—and at a number of inky smears and blots, and at an imperfectly disguised gun-case pretending to be something legal, and at an iron box labelled "Harmon Estate", until Mr. Lightwood appeared." (Dickens)

All these ands may easily be replaced by thens. But in this case too much stress would be laid on the logical aspects of the utterance, whereas and expresses both sequence and disintegration.

Note also that Dickens begins by repeating not only and, but also at. But in the middle of the utterance he drops the at, picks it up again, drops it once more and then finally picks it up and uses it with the last three items.

The Gap-Sentence Link

There is a peculiar type of connection of sentences which for want of a term we shall call the g a p-s e n t e n c e link (GSL). The connection is not immediately apparent and it requires a certain mental effort to grasp the interrelation between the parts of the utterance, in other words, to bridge the semantic gap. Here is an example:

"She and that fellow ought to be the sufferers, and they were in Italy:' (Galsworthy)

In this sentence the second part, which is hooked on to the first by the conjunction and, seems to be unmotivated or, in other words, the whole sentence seems to be logically incoherent. But this is only the first impression. After a more careful supralinear semantic analysis it becomes clear that the exact logical variant of the utterance would be:

'Those who ought to suffer were enjoying themselves in Italy (where well-to-do English people go for holidays).'

Consequently, GSL is a way of connecting two sentences seemingly unconnected and leaving it to the reader's perspicacity to grasp the idea implied, but not worded. Generally speaking, every detail of the situation need not be stated. Some must remain for the reader to divine.

As in many other cases, the device of GSL is deeply rooted in the norms of the spoken language. The omissions are justified because the situation easily prompts what has not been said. The proper intonation also helps in deciphering the communication. It is also natural in conversation to add a phrase to a statement made, a phrase which will point to uncertainty or lack of knowledge or to the unpredictability of the possible issue, etc., as in:

"She says nothing, but it is clear that she is harping on this engagement, and—goodness knows what." (Galsworthy)

In writing, where the situation is explained by the writer and the intonation is only guessed at, such breaks in the utterance are regarded as stylistic devices. The gap-sentence link requires a certain mental effort to embrace the unexpressed additional information.

The gap-sentence link is generally indicated by and or but. There is no asyndetic GSL, inasmuch as connection by asyndeton can be carried out only by semantic ties easily and immediately perceived. These ties are, as it were, substitutes for the formal grammatical means of connection. The gap-sentence link has no immediate semantic connections, therefore it requires formal indications of connection. It demands an obvious break in the semantic texture of the utterance and forms an "unexpected semantic leap."

The possibility of filling in the semantic gap depends largely on associations awakened by the two sentences linked cumulatively. In the following utterance the connection between the two sentences needs no comment.

"It was an afternoon to dream. And she took out Jon's letters." (Galsworthy)

While maintaining the unity of the utterance syntactically the author leaves the interpretation of the link between the two sentences to the mind of the reader. It is the imaginative mind only that can decode a message expressed by a stylistic device. Nowhere do the conjunctions and and but acquire such varied expressive shades of meaning as in GSL constructions. It is these nuances that cause the peculiar intonation with which and or but are pronounced. Thus in the following sentence the conjunction and is made very conspicuous by the intonation signalled by the dash:

"The Forsytes were resentful of something, not individually, but as a family, this resentment expressed itself in an added perfection of raiment, an exuberance of family cordiality, an exaggeration of family importance, and—the sniff." (Galsworthy)

The GSL and—the sniff is motivated. Its association with 'an exaggeration of family importance' is apparent. However, so strong is the emotive meaning of the word sniff that it overshadows the preceding words which are used in their primary, exact, logical meanings. Hence the dash after and to add special significance to the cumulative effect. This example shows that GSL can be accompanied by semantic gaps wider or narrower as the case may be. In this example the gap is very narrow and therefore the missing link is easily restored. But sometimes the gap is so wide that it requires a deep supralinear semantic analysis to get at the implied meaning. Thus in the following example from Byron's maiden speech:

"And here I must remark with what alacrity you are accustomed to fly to the succour of your distressed allies, leaving the distressed of your own country to the care of Providence or—the parish."

Here the GSL, maintained by or and followed by the dash, which indicates a rather long pause, implies that the parish, which was supposed to care for impoverished workers, was unable to do so.

By its intrinsic nature the conjuction but can justify the apparently unmotivated coupling of two unconnected statements. Thus, in the following passage GSL is maintained by and backed up by but.

"It was not Capetown, where people only frowned when they saw a black boy and a white girl. But here... And he loved her." (Abrahams)

The gap-sentence link as a stylistic device is based on the peculiarities of the spoken language and is therefore most frequently used in represented speech. It is GSL alongside other characteristics that moulds the device of unuttered represented speech.

The gap-sentence link has various functions. It may serve to signal the introduction of inner represented speech; it may be used to indicate a subjective evaluation of the facts; it may introduce an effect resulting from a cause which has already had verbal expression. In all these functions GSL displays an unexpected coupling of ideas. Even the cause-and-effect relations, logical as they are, when embodied in GSL structures are not so obvious.

In contra-distinction to the logical segmentation of the utterance, which leaves no room for personal interpretation of the interdependence of the component parts, GSL aims at stirring up in the reader's mind the suppositions, associations and conditions under which the sentence littered can really exist.

E. PARTICULAR USE OF COLLOQUIAL CONSTRUCTIONS

We have already pointed out some of the constructions which bear an imprint of emotion in the very arrangement of the words, whether they are neutral or stylistically coloured (see p. 39). Such constructions are almost exclusively used in lively colloquial intercourse. The emotional element can be strongly enforced by emphatic intonation, which is an indispensable component of emotional utterance. But what is important to observe is that the structure itself, independent of the actual lexical presentation, is intended to carry some emotional charge.

Emotional syntactical structures typical of the spoken variety of language are sometimes very effectively used by men-of-letters to depict the emotional state of mind of the characters; they may even be used, in particular cases, in the narrative of the author. But even when used in the dialogue of novels and stories these emotional constructions, being deprived of their accompaniment—intonation—assume a greater significance and become stylistically marked. Here the emotional structures stand out more conspicuously, because they are thrown into prominence not by the intonation pattern but by the syntactical pattern.

Consequently, it will be found necessary to classify some of the most typical structures of these kinds, in spite of the lurking danger of confusing idiomatic phrases (set expressions, phraseological units) with abstract patterns.

a) One of the most typical patterns is a simple statement followed by the pronoun that+noun (pronoun)+verb to be (in the appropriate form), for example:

"June had answered in her imperious brisk way, like the little embodiment of will that she was." (Galsworthy)

"And Felix thought: 'She just wants to talk to me about Derek, Dog in the manger that I am.'"

b) Another pattern is a question form with an exclamatory meaning expressing amazement, indignation, excitement, enjoyment, etc., for example:

"Old ladies, Do I ever hate them?"

"He said in an awestruck voice: 'Boy, is that a piece of boat/'"

"And boy, could that guy spend money!"

"And was Edward pleasedl"

"'Look', she said. 'Isn't that your boss there, just coming in?' 'My God! Yes,' said Lute, 'Oh, and has he a nice package?' 'I'll say. That's his wife with him, isn't it?'" (O'Hara) "A witch she is. I know her back in the old country. Sure, and didn't she come over on the same boat as myself?" (Betty Smith) Note that this pattern is generally preceded by an exclamatory word, or an interjection, or the conjunction and in the same function.

c) The third pattern is a morphological one (generally use of continuous forms), but mentioned here because it is closely connected with syntactical structures, inversions, repetitions and others, for example:

"You are not being silly, are you?" (Leslie Ford) "Now we're not going to have any more of that, Mrs Euston." (O'Hara)

d) The fourth pattern, also very common in colloquial English, is a construction where a noun or pronoun subject followed by the verbs to have (noun+object) or to be (noun+predicative) ends with the two components in inverted order, for example:

"She had a high colour, had Sally."

"He has a rather curious smile, has my friend."

"She is a great comfort to me, is that lass." (Cronin)

Sometimes though, the noun or pronoun subject is predicated by notional verbs. In this case to do is used in this trailing emphatic phrase, as in:

"He fair beats me, does James Brodie." (Cronin)

Negative forms are frequently used to indicate an emotional outburst of the speaker, for instance:

"You don't say!"

"I do say. I tell you I'm a student of this." (J. Steinbeck) "Don't be surprised if he doesn't visit you one of these days." (=if he visits you)

The emphasis is weaker in the second example.

The basic patterns of emotional colloquial constructions enumerated above have a particularly strong stylistic effect when they are used in the author's speech. The explanation of this must be sought in the well-known dichotomy of the oral vs the written variety of language.

As has been previously pointed out, the oral variety has, as one of its distinctive features, an emotional character revealed mostly in the use of special emotive words, intensifiers and additional semanticizing factors caused by intonation and voice qualities. The written variety is more intellectual; it is reasoned and, ideally, is non-emotional. So when such constructions have travelled from their homeland—dialogue— into the author's domain—monologue—, they assume the quality of an SD. Some of the examples given above illustrate this with sufficient clarity.

Among other cases of the particular use of colloquial constructions are 1) ellipsis, 2) break-in-the-narrative, 3) question-in-the-narrative, and 4) represented speech.

Ellipsis

Ellipsis is a typical phenomenon in conversation, arising out of the situation. We mentioned this peculiar feature of the spoken language when we characterized its essential qualities and properties.

But this typical feature of the spoken language assumes a new quality when used in the written language. It becomes a stylistic device inasmuch as it supplies suprasegmental information. An elliptical sentence in direct intercourse is not a stylistic device. It is simply a norm of the spoken language. Let us take a few examples.

"So Justice Oberwaltzer—solemnly and didactically from his high seat to the jury." (Dreiser)

One feels very acutely the absence of the predicate in this sentence. Why was it omitted? Did the author pursue any special purpose in leaving out a primary member of the sentence? Or is it just due to carelessness? The answer is obvious: it is a deliberate device. This particular model of sentence suggests the author's personal state of mind, viz. his indignation at the shameless speech of the Justice. It is a common fact that any excited state of mind will manifest itself in some kind of violation of the recognized literary sentence structure.

Ellipsis, when used as a stylistic device, always imitates the common features of colloquial language, where the situation predetermines not the omission of certain members of the sentence, but their absence. It would perhaps be adequate to call sentences lacking certain members "incomplete sentences", leaving the term ellipsis to specify structures where we recognize a digression from the traditional literary sentence structure.

Thus the sentences 'See you to-morrow.', 'Had a good time?', 'Won't do.', 'You say that?' are typical of the colloquial language. Nothing is omitted here. These are normal syntactical structures in the spoken language and to call them elliptical, means to judge every sentence

structure according to the structural models of the written language. Likewise, such sentences as the following can hardly be called elliptical.

"There's somebody wants to speak to you." "There was no breeze came through the open window."(Hemingway) "There's many a man in this Borough would be glad to have the blood that runs in my veins." (Cronin)

The relative pronouns who, which, who after 'somebody', 'breeze', 'a man in this Borough' could not be regarded as "omitted"—this is the norm of colloquial language, though now not in frequent use except, perhaps, with the there is (are) constructions as above. This is due, perhaps, to the standardizing power of the literary language. O. Jespersen, in his analysis of such structures, writes:

"If we speak here of 'omission' or 'subaudition' or 'ellipsis', the reader is apt to get the false impression that the fuller expression is the better one as being complete, and that the shorter expression is to some extent faulty or defective, or something that has come into existence in recent times out of slovenliness. This is wrong: the constructions are very old in the language and have not come into existence through the dropping of a previously necessary relative pronoun."1

Here are some examples quoted by Jespersen:

"/ bring him news will raise his drooping spirits."

"...or like the snow falls in the river."

"...when at her door arose a clatter might awake the dead."

W However, when the reader encounters such structures in literary texts, even though they aim at representing the lively norms of the spoken language, he is apt to regard them as bearing some definite stylistic function. This is due to a psychological effect produced by the relative rarity of the construction, on the one hand, and the non-expectancy of any strikingly colloquial expression in literary narrative.

It must be repeated here that the most characteristic feature of the written variety of language is amplification, which by its very nature is opposite to ellipsis. Amplification generally demands expansion of the ideas with as full and as exact relations between the parts of the utterance as possible. Ellipsis, on the contrary, being the property of colloquial language, does not express what can easily be supplied by the situation. This is perhaps the reason that elliptical sentences are rarely used as stylistic devices. Sometimes the omission of a link-verb adds emotional colouring and makes the sentence sound more emphatic, as in these lines from Byron:

"Thrice happy he who, after survey

of the good company, can win a corner."

"Nothing so difficult as a beginning."

"Denotes how soft the chin which bears his touch."

It is wrong to suppose that the omission of the link-verbs in these sentences is due to the requirements of the rhythm.

Break-in-the- Narrative (Aposiopesis)

A p o s i o p e s i s is a device which dictionaries define as "A stopping short for rhetorical effect." This is true. But this definition is too general to disclose the stylistic functions of the device.

In the spoken variety of the language, a break in the narrative 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 break in the narrative is always a stylistic device used for some stylistic effect. It is difficult, however, to draw a hard and fast distinction between break-in-the-narrative as a typical feature of lively colloquial language and as a specific stylistic device. The only criterion which may serve as a guide is that in conversation the implication can be conveyed by an adequate gesture. In writing it is the context, which suggests the adequate intonation, that is the only key to decoding the aposiopesis.

In the following example the implication of the aposiopesis is a warning:

"If you continue your intemperate way of living, In six months" time..."

In the sentence: "You just come home or I'll..." the implication is a threat. The second example shows that without a context the implication can only be vague. But when one knows that the words were said by an angry father to his son over the telephone the implication becomes apparent.

Aposiopesis is a stylistic syntactical device to convey to the reader a very strong upsurge of emotions. The idea of this stylistic device is that the speaker cannot proceed, his feelings depriving him of the ability to express himself in terms of language. Thus in Don Juan's address to Julia, who is left behind:

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