Practice Section

Seminar 3. Stylistic Grammar

1. What are the basic principles of stylistic grammar? How does grammatical metaphor correlate with lexical metaphor?

2. What is the essence of the grammatical gradation theory? De­scribe the types of grammatical transposition and provide your own examples to illustrate each type,

3. Consider the following sentences and comment on the function of morphological grammatical categories and parts of speech that create stylistic function:

Daria Savanovich:

1. One night I am standing in front of Mindy's restaurant on Broadway, thinking of practically nothing whatever, when all of a sudden I feel a very terrible pain in my left foot. (Runyon)

(Present Continuous and Present Simple. It helps to intensify the images and let a reader be a part of that situation. The verbs, e.g. “stand”, “think” and “feel” and nouns, e.g. night, restaurant, pain, foot helps to create an allusion of reality)

2. It's good, that, to see you again, Mr. Philip, said Jim. (Caldwell)

(“that” is used here as an adverb with the meaning “very” to emphasize the speaker’s feelings and point his joy).

3. Earth colours are his theme. When he shows up at the door, we see that he's even dressing in them. His pants are grey. His shirt is the same colour as his skin, flesh colour. (Erdrich)

(Present Continuous, characterizing the current emotional state of behavior).

4. Now, the Andorrans were a brave, warlike people centuries ago, as everybody was at one time or another—for example, take your Assyrians, who are now extinct; or your Swedes, who fought in the Thirty Years' War but haven't done much since except lie in the sun and turn brown... (Berger)

(Possessive pronoun expresses the author’s irritation or contempt for behavior of Swedes during the Thirty Years' War).

5. A gaunt and Halloweenish grin was plastered to her face. (Erdrich)

(The suffix –ish it is adjectivized and serves as an epithet; Halloween itself is associated with something dark and frightening, “gaunt” and “grin” produce the frightening effect on the readers).

Smolkina Maya:

6. I walked past Mrs. Shumway, who Jerked her head around in a startled woodpeckerish way... (Erdrich)

(“woodpeckerish”-adjective from the noun, the author characterizes the manners of Mrs. Shumway to make her image more vivid and expressive).

7. She's the Honourable Mrs. Beste-Chetwynde, you know—sister-in-law of Lord Postmaster—a very wealthy woman, South American. (Waugh)

(A definite article is used to emphasize good or bad qualities of the person, her importance).

8 ....there are two kinds of people, which we may call the Hurtersand the Hurtees. The first get their satisfaction by working their will on somebody else. The second like to be imposed upon. (Burger)

(Hurtersand – a person who does it, Hurtees – a person to whom something is done. The author uses these proper names as plural which lends the narration a unique generalizing effect).

9. To hear her was to be beginning to despair. (Jarrell)

( Conviction, determination, persistence. It is used to convey the emotional state of the speaker, to proclaim the speaker’s state of mind, his mood, his intentions or feelings).

10. But they do manage the building? Mrs. Doubleday said to him. (Cheever)

( Notable emphatic device).

Shulgina Oxana:

11. A band indeed! You' II be having fireworks next. (Waugh)

( The Future Continuous is used in order to emphasize speaker’s expects of this action to take place in the future in the natural course of events)

12. I stare down at the bright orange capsules... I have to listen... so we look at each other, up and down, and up and down... Without us, they say, without Loise, it's the state hospital (Erdrich)

(The “historical present” creates the effect of empathy and makes the description of events more descriptive).

13. Ah! That must be Aunt Augusta. Only relatives, or creditors, ever ring in that Wagnerian manner, (Wilde)

(Affixation. The suffix “ian” means “ something, especially connected with a particular person”. It has here a negative or ironical colouring).

14. I got nothing against Joe Chapin, but he's not me. I'm me, and another man is still another man. (O'Hara)

(There is an intensifier of expressed meaning expressed – the pronoun “me”. The repetition of the pronoun another is tautology, carrying a different information in each of the two parts).

15 That's not the Mr. Littlejohn I used to know. (Waugh)

(The definite article is used with a proper name, to emphasize the changes in the attitude of a speaker to Mr. Littlejohn).

Zubchenko Victoria:

16. I pronounce that the sentence on the defendants, Noette Page and Lawrence Douglas, shall be execution by a firing squad. ( Sheldon)

(Shall be denotes the speaker’s determination.)

17. They are all being so forma ., Let's play a game to break the ice. (Bell)

(Present Continuous, for characterizing the current emotional state or behavior.)

18. I wondered how the Moroccan boy... could stand meekly aside and watch her go off with another man.

Actors, I thought. They must divide themselves into compartments. (Shaw)

(The noun in plural form, used to make the description more powerful, generalized.)

19. Oh, I guess I love you, I do love the children, but / love myself, I love my life, it has some value and some promise forme... (Cheever)

(Personal pronoun, I -denotes emotional state of the speaker, do – notable emphatic device.)

20. Let him say his piece, the darling. Isn't he divine? ( Waugh)

(Imperative, let -express determination, the – address to a certain person to individualize the person as the unique one, to show his importance.)

Kolbunova Kate:

21. It never was the individual sounds of a language, but the melodies behind them, that Dr. Rosenbaum imitated. For these his ear was Mozartian. (Jarrell)

(The diminutive suffix –ian with the proper name means the connection with a famous composer and might connotate a high quality of the melodies).

22. They are allowed to have the train stopped at every cross-roads. (Atkinson)

(The plural form is used to emphasize the quantity of the cross-roads).

4. Arrange syntactical expressive means described in Galperin's classification into four groups according to the major principles of stylistic syntax in addition to the illustrations given in the chapter above,

5. Identify syntactical stylistic devices used in the examples below and comment on their meaning in the context:

Tashlykova Ilona:

1. / should have brought down a more attractive dress. This one, with its white petals gone dull in the shower steam, with its belt of lavender and prickling lace at each pulse point, I don't like. (Erdrich) (Epithets, which help to describe the dress in details, metaphor).

2. / begin my windshield-wiper wave, as instructed by our gym teacher, who has been a contestant for Miss North Dakota. Back and forth very slowly. Smile, smile, smile. (Erdrich)

(Simile; alliteration, repetition “smile, smile, smile” is used for the expressiveness,parenthesis)

3. Except for the work in the quarries, life at Egdon was almost the same as at Blackstone.

'Slops outside,' chapel, privacy. (Waugh)

(Enumeration; in this case enumeration points the key things for describing of the situation).

4. It was for this reason the rector had so abjectly curled up, still so abjectly curled up before She-who-was Cynthia: because of his slave's fear of her contempt, the contempt of a born-free nature for a base-born nature. (Lawrence)

(Anadiplosis – used for hooking the parts of the sentence standing together, parenthesis).

Kolbunova Kate:

5. The warder rang the bell— Inside, you two! he shouted. (Waugh)

(Ellipsis is used to make the speech of the characters more colloquial, to add liveliness).

6. —Old man, Miles said amiably, If I may say so, I think you're missing the point.

— If I may say so, sir, Philippe said, I think I am missing nothing; What is the point? (Shaw)

(Parallel constructions to create a certain rhythm, to stress a certain idea).

7. You asked me what I had going this time. What I have going is wine. With the way the world's drinking these days, being in wine is like having a license to steal. (Shaw)

(Anadiplosis shows an interaction of the part of the paragraph).

Yaroslav Loukomskiy:

8. How kind of you, Alfred! She has asked about you, and expressed her intention— her intention, if you please! —to know you. (Caldwell)

(It is an anadiplosis which is used to intensify the expressed idea; break in the narrative filled by inserted clause).

9. When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people. (Wilde)

(Here the repetition is used; it is a parallel construction which is used to express the contrast of ideas).

10. —There are lots of things I wanted to do—I wanted to climb the Matterhorn but I wouldn't blame the fact that I haven't on anyone else.

—You. Clime the Matterhorn. Ha. You couldn't even climb the Washington Monument. (Cheever)

(Anadiplosis is used to show the interaction of different parts of a paragraph or text; the decomposition -to express the dynamic pace of narration).

11. There was no Olga. I had no consolation. Then I felt desperate, desolate, crushed. (Cheever)

(It is a climax which is used to show emotional tension).

Parashchuk Svetlana:

12. — You get cold, riding a bicycle? he asked.
—My hands! she said clasping them nervously. (Lawrence)

(The elliptical sentence -to create a sense of immediacy and local colour)

13. If the man had been frightening before, he was now a perfect horror. (Berger)

(Inversion. It creates a humorous effect of the description of a person)

14. My dear fellow, the way you flirt with Gwendolen is perfectly disgraceful. It is almost as bad as the way Gwendolen flirts with you. (Wilde)

(Framing. It creates a kind of structural encasement of the sentence).

15. Trouble is, I don't know if I want a business or not. Or even if I can pay for it, if I did want it. (Shute)

(Epiphora - repetition of certain elements at the end of two successive clauses, emphasises these elements).

Christina Belenkova:

16. A man has a right to get married and have children, and I’d earned the have a wife, both in work and money. A man's got a right to live his own place. A man has a right to make his life where he can look after his Dad and Mum a bit when they get old. (Shute)

(Anaphora. Repetition of the same element at the beginning of successive clauses, stresses the idea expressed in these closes).

17. …already we were operating five aircraft of four different types, and if we got a Tramp we should have six aircraft of five types... Tramp it would have to be, and I told them of my money difficulty. (Shute)

(Aposiopesis is used to involve the reader into the narration).

18. Damrey Phong, though healthy, is a humid place. (Shute)

(Detached construction has explanatory function)

19. He 's made his declaration. He loves me. He can't live without me. He 'd walk through fire to hear the notes of my voice, (Cheever)

(Anaphora. Denotes emotional state of the speaker)

20. That’s the foolest thing I ever heard. (Berger)

(Ellipsis adds emotional colouring and makes the sentence sound more emphatic).

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