SD Based on Usage of Meanings of Category of Number. I. Stylistic Devices Based on Noun Usage

I. Stylistic Devices Based on Noun Usage

1. Stylistic Devices Based on Usage of Invariant Meaning of Substantivity.

Words of every part of speech are united by their semantic and grammatical properties. Invariant lexico-grammatical meaning of nouns is the meaning of substantivity i.e. the ability to denote objects or abstract notions. Substantivity is realized in the categories of number, case, definiteness / indefiniteness. These noun meanings can be used for stylistic purposes.

Transposition is possible not only between different parts of speech, but also between different lexico-grammatical classes of nouns. Due to the diverse nature of substantivity, English nouns can be divided into the following classes:

1) nouns, denoting persons – a doctor, father, priest, a person;

2) nouns, denoting living beings – real or imaginary: angel, bird, tiger, devil, hobbit;

3) collective nouns: family, gentry, clergy, team, mankind;

4) nouns, denoting material (or substance): meat, steel, honey.

5) abstract nouns: dismay, freedom;

6) proper nouns: London, Ukraine, Mr. Sandford, Rocky Mountains;

7) nouns, denoting units of measurement: a mile, a month.

Stylistic devices based on the usage of invariant meaning of substantivity can be created in two ways:

1) in syntactical construction N₁ is N₂ the same words are repeated as homogeneous members of a sentence: boys are boys; miles upon miles; day after day.

In the given construction repetition of any word of any lexico-grammatical class is possible:

e.g. Money is money;

After all three hundred pounds is three hundred pounds.

2) Homogeneous members of a sentence and members of the construction N₁ is N₂ are substituted by nouns of different lexico-grammatical classes. The widest valency of N₁ belongs to nouns denoting persons. These nouns can be combined:

a) with nouns denoting living beings: He is a lion, a fox, an ass. He is a devil with women. Women are funny creatures.

b) with nouns denoting different things: Phyllis was the key to the problem.

c) with abstract nouns: He would be a great success in America. These girls are an awful responsibility.

In the English language as in many other languages, grammatical category of number is realized by two forms – the singular and the plural. In opposition of forms: “singular plural” the plural form is considered to be “marked”, that’s why the possibilities of usage of the plural form for stylistic purposes are wider. According to the category of number, nouns are classified into countables and uncountables. Each group has its own regularities of usage. When these regularities are broken for stylistic reasons, speech becomes expressive. a) Uncountable nouns in the singular or, countable nouns in the singular, occasionally realizing the meaning of more than oneness, evoke picturesque connotations. In this case such nouns can denote a number of homogeneous objects. They denote not the set of all the homogeneous objects of the kind, but the meaning of a part of them (or a group of them):

e.g. to hunt tiger = to hunt tigers;

to keep chick = to keep chicks;

to shoot duck = to shoot ducks.

In Russian: бить зайца – охотиться на зайцев;

ходить на медведя – охотиться на медведей.

This SD is often used in fiction because the meaning of the singular can create a higher degree of abstractness:

e.g. By God they were soldiers. The Old Huns was a soldier… The Old Huns

would come down through the Trentino, and cut the railway at Vicenza and

then where would the Italians be. (E. Hemingway)

In Russian :«Глубокий сон во стане шведа» (А.Пушкин);

«Слева наши, справа наши, не отстать бы на ходу,

немец кухни с теплой кашей второпях забыл в саду»

(А. Твардовский)

b) Usage of plural forms of nouns are also widely observed in fiction. A SD is based on the violation of normal combination of morphemes in the structure of a word: adding of the plural ending –s to nouns, which don’t normally take plural ending:

1) Plural ending – s can be added to proper names. Here we mean not the cases when plural form denotes members of the same family: the Forsytes, the Smiths. Here we refer cases when the usage of the plural ending –s can be used to denote the whole nation:

e.g. “ The real war of the world was not between the Bill Davidsons and the Jean

Duvals and the Hans Müllers. ” (R. Aldington)

(т.е. англичанами, французами и немцами).

The stylistic effect is intensified by the usage of the same proper names in the singular in the same text:

e.g. What Bill Davidson and Jean Duval and Hans Müller ought to do was to

stop blowing each other to hell (R. Aldington).

2) Nouns denoting materials don’t usually take the plural ending. But if they do take the plural ending –s, they are used to denote “different sorts of the given materials”: oils, sugars, coffees, wines.

e.g. There is marked difference in quality between these coffees.

(English Language Teaching)

In Russian: Масла, бензины, вина, смазки.

They have no stylistic value. In this case we can speak only about functional-stylistic meaning, because these forms are used only in definite spheres of professional activity.

Nouns denoting materials can also be used in the plural form to create special stylistic expressive effect with the meaning “great quantity of something”.

e.g. The waters of the Atlantic; “a Daughter of Snows” (a title of Jack London’s

story); sands of Africa.

3 ) Abstract nouns can take the plural form. In this case they acquire the meaning “ a great number of smth.,” and at the same time intensive-qualitative meaning:

e.g. I simply hated the idea of being cast out of his affections. (J. Galsworthy)

Winfrid has emotions, hates, pities, wants – at least sometimes. (J. Galsworthy)

Дата добавления: 2014-01-11