Practical assignment

Pick out figures of combination, classify them and define their sty­listic functions.

1. Isaac's looks were starched, but his white neckerchief was not. 2. For a time Jean put on a Red Cross uniform and met other ladies similarly dressed in the armory, where bandages were rolled and reputations unrolled. 3. Ben­ny reminded James, as he said afterwards, of a hungry cat. 4. Huddled in her gray fur against the sofa cushions, Aurora had a strange resemblance to a captive owl. 5. I want you all, each and every one of you all. 6. The rich arrived in pairs and also in Rolls Royces. 7.1 let a day slip by without seeing her, then three, a whole week. 8. The yacht was his inheritance, his tradition, his life. 9. I despise New York's poorest great men, the haughtiest beggars, the painful delights, the lowest skyscrapers, the dolefulest pleasures. 10. The lady had a mane of yellow hair too long to be called bobbed, but too loose to be called anything else. 11. When a man is in the country he amuses other people. When a man is in town he amuses himself. 12. The trouble happened because of this degrading and disgusting document, this blighting bill, this per­nicious placard, this abominable advertisement. 13. Poor Betty. She must be as poor as a church mouse. 14. The countryside seemed to faint from its own loveliness. 15. Clement was a saint in public and a devil at home. 16. More solitary than Robinson Crusoe, who had nobody to look at him, I went into the booking-office. 17. Joe was a mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-go­ing, foolish dear fellow. 18. Mr. Wine's method of paying off debts would be a form of feeding a dog with bits of its own tail. 19. It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us... on the right and in front and behind. 20. "Golden dreams" is a very sweet story, singularly sweet; in fact, madam, the critics are saying it is the sweetest thing that Mr. Slush has done.

CHAPTER 8

Stylistic Syntax Syntactic Stylistic Devices

ELLIPSIS

An elliptical sentence is such a syntactic structure in which there is no subject, or predicate, or both. The main parts of elliptical sentences are omitted by the speaker intentionally in cases when they are semantically re­dundant. For example:

- Where did you go?

- To the disco.

Assigned features. Elliptical sentences can not be viewed as stylistic devices in direct intercourse because they are devoid of suprasegmental information. Ellipsis becomes expressive when used in literature as a means of imitating real speech. Ellipsis makes speech dynamic, informative and unofficial.

Communicative functions. Ellipsis saves the speaker from needless ef­fort, spares his time, reduces redundancy of speech. Elliptical structures may also reveal such speakers' emotions as excitement, impatience, delight, etc. As a stylistic device, ellipsis is an effective means of protagonists' portrayal.

More examples:

- Hullo! Who are you?

- The staff.

- Where are the others?

- At the front.

Вгорі - темне непривітне небо, долі — холодна мокра земля, і більш нічого.

Скільки тобі вчитися в училищі? - Два роки. Note. It is essential to differentiate between elliptical sentences and one-member structures. The problem is that they may look completely hom­onymous out of context. For example, the isolated sentence "Dark night" can be treated both as one-member (non-elliptical) or two-member elliptical struc­ture. What is what becomes clear only in speech. If a text begins with the sequence of sentences "Dark night. Strong wind. Loneliness", they are obviously one-member, having neither subject nor predicate. But if the im­plied subject and predicate can be easily and unambiguously restored in con­text, we deal with a two-member elliptical sentence. Thus, the sentence "At the front" of the above given example is two-member, elliptical, and extend­ed, its subject they and its predicate are being implied.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14