Partial inversion comprises the secondary parts of the sentence

Expressive means based on violation of the word order

Syntactical stylistic devices based on the transformation of types and means of connection between sentences.

Syntactical stylistic devices based on transposition of the meaning of the syntactical construction or the model of the sentence.

Syntactical stylistic devices based on relations between several syntactical constructions in a certain context.

Syntactical expressive means based on violation of the word order

SYNTACTICAL STYLISTICS

Lecture 6

English, as opposed to Ukrainian or Latin, is characterized by a fixed order of words. This does not mean that changes of word order are impossible in English. This means, however, that every relocation of sentence parts in English is of greater importance, of a more significant stylistic value than in Ukrainian.

Inversion is based on the violation of the fixed word order in the sentence. It does not alter the grammatical meaning of the sentence but gives it an additional stylistic colouring.

E.g. Out came Margaret to join them, looking at the hills. Out came the servants from the kitchen. (D. Lessing)

The stylistic device of inversion should not be confused with gram­matical inversion, which is a norm in interrogative or negative constructions.

Grammatical inversion - a means of forming different types of questions, it is devoid of stylistic information.

Stylistic inversion - a change of word order which gives logical stress or emotional colouring to the units placed in an unusual syntactical position.

Stylistic inversion does not change the grammatical essence (the grammatical type of the sentence): it is an unusual arrangement of words for the purpose of making one of them more conspicuous, more important, more emphatic.

Inversion as an EM is always sense-motivated.

We differentiate between a partial and a complete inversion.

Complete inversion refers to the principal parts of the sentence.

E.g. On the centre of the lake lay the true centre of the Western World. (S. Fitzgerald)

E.g. Help them you must, but help them you couldn’t. (F.O’Connor) - the predicative part of the verb predicate is inverted)

Past the barn he ran. (J. Steinbeck) - the adverbial modifier is inverted.

predicate - In came Jack.

predicative - Insolent Connor’s conduct was.

direct object - Little chances Benny had.

indirect object - To her family Martha gives all her time.

attribute - This is a letter congratulatory.

adv. modifier - To the disco Hilda went.

The most conspicuous places in the sentence are considered to be the first and the last: the first place because the full force of the stress can be felt at the beginning of an utterance and the last place because there is a pause after it.

English predicate-object groups are so bound together that when we tear the object away from its predicate, the latter remains dangling in the sentence and in this position sometimes calls forth a change in mean­ing of the predicate word. In the inverted word order not only the objects become conspicuous but also the predicates.

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

Functions and stylistic effects

- to add to a sentence an emotive and emphatic colouring

- to attach a logical stress to the utterance

Detachment is an isolation of some parts of the sentence, aimed at producing emphatic and emotional effects, giving more prominence to the isolated words. Detachment is akin to inversion, but produces a much stronger effect.

Being connected with one another in speech, words and phrases are mostly combined with their environment semantically. Detachment is a specific phonetic treatment of a word or word-group: instead if the usual articulation when the word (phrase) is fused with its environment, the speaker makes a short pause before and after the detached segment, thus laying special stress on it.. as a result of this, the word (phrase) appears to be opposite to the rest of the sentence – to what precedes it and follows it. Hence, the detached part is underlined as something especially important.

Secondary members obtain their own prominence because they are detached from the rest of the sentence by com­mas, or dashes.

The detached elements may be any secondary members of the sentence:

- attribute – His eyes had a queer look, black and flat. (R.Chandler)

- apposition - They put him under laughing–gas, poor lad. (J.K.Jerome)

- direct object – Talent, Mr. Micawber has, capital, Mr. Micawber has not. (Ch. Dickens)

- prepositional object – It was indeed, to Forsyte eyes, an odd house. (J. Galsworthy)

- adverbial modifier – And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor shall be lifted – nevermore! (Poe)

In the last example the word "nevermore”'" remains an adver­bial modifier and occupies its proper place, following the modi­fied verb, but - due to detachment and the ensuing additional pause and stress – is foregrounded into the focus of the reader's attention and assumes a greater degree of significance.

A detached construction becomes a peculiar device bridging the norms of written and spoken language

Functions and stylistic effect

- to foreground a certain notion into the focus of the reader's attention and assume a greater degree of significance

A. Morokhovsky also singles out one more EM based on the violation of word order - separation / syntactical split – the split of the noun phrase by the attribute adjunct which is removed from the word it modifies.

He had never seen the truth before, about anything. (R.Warren)

She also conveyed the impression – how I do not know, for her manner was almost wearily indifferent – of being at least twice as much alive as most people. (A. Christie)

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