Syntactical Expressive Mans and Stylistic Devices

Lecture 5.

These differences as well as in vocabulary give ground for some scientists to claim the existence of the American language. But the differences in pronunciation, spelling and vocabulary are not so far reaching as to give grounds to consider that there exists the American language as such.

In the intonation system American English is more monotonous. The range of the utterance is usually narrower.

We say that since English spoken in USA have the same grammar, structure and the same basic word stock, we may speak of the American English variant of English.

Plan:

1. SDs based on the arrangement of its members. Repetition.

a) anaphor

b) epithora

c) framing

d) catch repetition (anadiplosis)

e) chain repetition

f) ordinary repetition

g) successive repetition

1. SDs on the completeness of the structure

a) ellipsis

b) telegraphic style

c) apokoinu constructions

d) break (aposipesis)

1. Other syntactical SDs.

a) Antithesis

b) C’Limax

The effect of the majority of syntactical stylistic devices depends on either the completeness of the structure or on the arrangement of its members. The order in which words follow each other is of extreme importance not only for the logical coherence of the sentence but also for its connotational meanings.

I. One of the most prominent places amony the SDs dealing with arrangement of members of the sentence decidedly belong to repetition.

As a syntactical SD repetition is a recurrence of the same word, word combination, phrase for two and more times.

Repetition is used when the speaker is under stress of strong emotion.

The stylistic device of repetition aims at logical emphasis necessary to fix the attention of the reader on the key-word of the utterance:

Alone, alone, all, all alone

Alone on a wide, wide sea!

According to the place which the repeated unit occupies in a sentence (utterance), repetition is classified into several types:

1) anaphora [ə’næfərə]: the beginning of some successive sentences (clauses) is repeated – a …, a …, a …:

Farewell to the mountains high covered

Farewell to the starts and green valleys below!

Farwell to the forests and wild-hanging woods!

Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods!

(Burns)

The main stylistic function of anaphora is not so much to emphasize the repeated unit as to creat the background for the no repeated unit, which, through its novelty, becomes fore grounded.

2. Epiphors [I’pifərə]: the end of successive sentences (clauses) is repeated - … a, … a, … a.

I wake up and I’m alone, and I walk round War trey and I am alone, and I talk with people and I’m alone … (J.Br.)

The main function of epiphora is to all stress to the final words of the sentence.

This kind of repetition can also have a slightly different function: I becomes a background against which the statements preceding the repeated unit are made to stand out more conspicuously.

I am exactly the man to be placed in a superior position in such a case as that. I am above the rest of mankind, in such a case as that. I can act with philosophy, in such a case as that (Dickens).

This may be called the background function. It must be observed, however, that the logical function of the repetition, to give emphasis, does not fade when it assumes the background function. This is an additional function.

3. Framing: the beginning of the sentence if repeated in the end, thus forming the “frame” for the non-repeated part of the sentence (utterance) – a … a … e.g.

He ran away from the battle.

He was an ordinary human being that didn’t want to kill or be killed, so he ran away from the battle. (St. H.)

The function of framing is to elucidate the notion mentioned in the beginning of the sentence. Between two appearances of the repeated unit there comes the developing middle part of the sentence which explains and clarifies what was introduced in the beginning, so that by the time it is used for the second time its semantics is concretized and specified.

4. Catch repetition (also called linking repetition and anadiplosic) the end of one clause (sentence) is repeated in the beginning of the following one - …a, a …

e.g. Failure meant poverty, poverty meant squalor led, in the find stages, to the smells and stagnation of B. Inn Alley (D. du M.)

Specifition of the semantics occurs here too, but on a more modest level.

5. Chain repetition presents several successive anadiplosis - … a, a … b, b … c, c ….

e.g. “A smile would come into Mr. Pickwicks face: the smile extended into a laugh: the laugh into a roar, and the roar became general” (Dickens).

The effect is that of the smoothly developing logical reasoning.

6. Ordinary repetition has no definite place in the sentence and the repeated unit occurs in various positions - … a, … a, a ….

e.g. “Once upon a time, in a very small country town, at a considerable distance from London, there lived a little man named Nathaniel Pipkin, who was the parish clerk of the little town, and lived in a little house in the little high street, within ten minutes’ walk of the little church; and who was to be found every day from nine till four, teaching a little learning to the little boys.” (Dickens, PP, p 264).

Ordinary repetition emphasized both the logical and the emotional meanings of the reiterated word.

7. Successive repetition is a string of closely following each other reiterated units - … a, a, a ….

e.g. I acme back, shrinking from my fathers money, shrinking from my fathers memory: mistrustful of being farced on a mercenary wife, mistrustful of my father’s intention in thrusting that marriage on me, mistrustful that I was already growing avaricious, mistrustful that I was slackening in gratitude to the dear noble honest friends who had made the only sunlizet in my childish life (D.)

this is the most emphatic type of repetition which signifies, the peak of emotions of the speaker.

As you must have seen from the brief description, repetition is a powerful means of emphasis. Besides, repetition adds rhythm and balance to the utterance.

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