Expressive means and stylistic devices as basic notions of stylistics.

In linguistics there are different means by which a writer obtains his effect. Expressive means, stylistic devices tropes, figures of speech are all used indiscriminately. For our purposes it is necessary to make a distinction between expressive means and stylistic devices.

Expressive means of a language are those phonetic means, morphological forms, means of word-building and lexical, phraseological and syntactical forms, all of which function in the language for emotional or logical intensification of the utterance. An expressive means (EM) is a marked member of a stylistic opposition which has an invariant meaning in language. These intensifying forms have been fixed in grammar books and dictionaries.

e.g. The use of shall in the second and third person may be regarded as an expressive means.

cf He shall do it = I shall make him do it.

Among word-building we find a great many forms which help intensify it. The diminutive suffixes such as -y (ie), -let dearie, streamlet.

We may also refer to what are called neologisms and nonce-words formed by means of non-productive suffixes: mistressmanship, cleanorama, tellethone.

Stylistics observes not only the nature of an expressive means but also its capacity of becoming a stylistic device.

What is then a stylistic device? It is a conscious and intentional, literary use of some of the facts of the language (excluding expressive means) in which the most essential features (both structural and semantic) of the language forms are raised to a generalized level and thereby present a generative model.A stylistic device is an intentional change of a fixed (usual) distribution of language units in speech.

In order to be able to distinguish between EM and stylistic devices it is necessary to bear in mind that EM are concrete facts of language. Stylistics studies the EM of language from a special angle. It takes into account the modifications of meanings which various expressive means undergo when they are used in different functional styles.

Stylistic device is a conscious and intentional intensification of some typical structural and/or semantic property of a language unit (neutral or expressive) promoted to a generalized status and thus becoming a generative model. Stylistic device is an abstract pattern, a mould into which any content can be poured.

The interrelation between EMs and SDs can be worded in terms of the theory of information. Expressive means have a greater degree of predictability than stylistic devices.

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