Lecture 5 Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices

Aim: to improve students’ skills in the knowledge of SD and EM with other disciplines

Plan:

1. The general notion of EM and SD

2. Expressive Means

3. Stylistic Devices

Recommendations:

1. Scrutinize the lecture and pay attention to the terms given in the lecture.
2. Pay attention to the reference literature.
3. Speculate on the implications which might arise upon the reading of the lecture.

1.The evidence of dichotomy is the interrelated opposition of expressive means(EMs) and Stylistic Devices (SDs) as speech models that are used to achieve a particular effect in speech.

The Expressive means of the language are registered in it and can be found at all language level. They are studied respectively in manuals of phonetics, grammar, morphology, and lexicology as sounds and their combination, word meanings and word structures.

A Stylistic Device is a conscious and intentional literary use of some of the facts of the language for further intensification of the emotional or the logical emphasis contained in the Expressive Means” (Galperin 1997). Compared to the Expressive Means of the language, stylistic devices represent a greater amount of information as they show the attitude and emotional state of the speaker or of the author toward what he is speaking about.

In linguistics there are different terms to denote particular means by which utterances are fore grounded, i.e. made more conspicuous, more effective and therefore imparting some additional information. They are called expressive means, stylistic means, stylistic markers, stylistic devices, tropes, figures of speech and other names.

Why is it so important to distinguish it from the expressive and neutral means of the language?

The category of expressiveness has long been the subject of heated discussions among linguists. In its etymological sense expressiveness may be understood as a kind of intensification of an utterance or of a part of it depending on the position in the utterance of the means that manifest this category and what these means are.

But somehow lately the notion of expressiveness has been confused with another notion, with emotiveness. Emotiveness, and correspondingly the emotive elements of language are those that reveal the emotions of writer or speaker.

Expressiveness is a broader notion than emotiveness and is by no means to be reduced to the latter. Emotiveness is an integral part of expressiveness and, as a matter of fact, occupies a predominant position in the category of expressiveness.

The expressive means of a language are those phonetic, morphological, word-building, lexical, phraseological and syntactical forms, which exit in language -as-a-system for the purpose of logical and or emotional intensification of the utterance. These intensifying forms, wrought by social usage and recognized by their semantic function, have been singled out in grammars, courses in phonetics and dictionaries (including phraseological ones) as having special functions in making the utterances emphatic. Some of them are normalized, and good dictionaries label them as “intensifiers”. In most cases they have corresponding neutral synonymous forms.

Compare, for example, the following pairs:

(1) He shall do it! = I shall make him do it.

(2) Isn’t she cute! = She is very nice, isn’t she?

Expressiveness may also be achieved by compositional devices in utterances comprising a number of sentences- in syntactical wholes and in paragraphs. This will be shown in the chapter on syntactical stylistic devices.

What then is a stylistic device? It 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.

They always carry some kind of additional information, either emotive or logical. That is why the method of free variation employed in descriptive linguistics cannot be used in stylistics because any substitution may cause damage to the semantic and aesthetic aspect of the utterance.

Therefore it is necessary to distinguish between a stylistic uses of a language unit, which acquires what we call a stylistic meaning, and a stylistic device, which is the realization of an already well-known abstract scheme designed to achieve a particular artistic effect. Thus many facts of English grammar are said to be used with stylistic meaning, for example, the morphological expressive means mentioned above.

The interrelation between expressive means and stylistic devices can be worded in terms of the theory of information. Expressive means have a greater degree of predictability than stylistic devices. The latter may appear in an environment which may seem alien and therefore be only slightly or not at all predictable. Expressive means, on the contrary, follow the natural course of thought, intensifying it by means commonly used in language. It follows that SD s carry a greater amount of information and therefore require a certain effort to decode their meaning and purpose.

2.Expressive means of a language are those linguistic forms and properties that have the potential to make the utterance emphatic or expressive. These can be found on all levels- phonetic, graphical, morphological, lexical or syntactical.

EM and SD have a lot in common but they are not completely synonymous. All SDs belong to EM but not all Ems are SDs. Phonetic phenomena such as vocal pitch, pauses, logical stress, and drawling, or staccato pronunciation are all expressive without being SDs.

Morphological forms like diminutive suffixes may have an expressive effect: girlie, piggy, doggy, etc. An unexpected use of the author’s nonce words like: He glasnosted his love affair with this movie star (People) is another example of morphological EM.

Lexical EM may be illustrated by a special group of intensifiers – awfully, terribly, absolutely, etc. or words that retain their logical meaning while being used emphatically: It was a very special evening/event/gift.

There are also special grammatical forms and syntactical patterns attributing expressiveness, such as: I do know her! I’m really angry with that dog of yours! If only I could help you!

3.A Stylistic Device is a literary model in which semantic and structural features are blended so that it represents a generalized pattern.

Examples of SD:

1. My new dress is as pink as this flower

2. She is a red flower

3. My love is a red, red rose

Control questions:

1. What is the general notion of EM and SD?
2. What is the discrepancy between EM and SD?

Literature:

1. Л.Л. Нелюбин. Лингвостилистика современного английского языка. М., 2007г

2.Арнольд И.В. Стилистика современного английского языка. М., 1990
3. Кухаренко В.П. Семинары по стилистике. М., 1985
4. Galperin I. R. Stylistics. М., 1981
5. Кухаренко В.П. Интерпретация текста. М., 1984.
6. Разинкина Н.М, Функциональная стилистика. М., 1989.
7. Телия В.Н. Теория метафоры. М., Наука, 1990.

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