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Lecture 1.2 Modern English from the Viewpoint of Syntagmatic Stylistics
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Module I. Stylistics as a Separate Branch of Linguistics
Lecture 1.1 General Problems of Style and Stylistics
The stylistic knowledge of any natural living language accumulates in itself the elements of knowledge of all the other branches of linguistics: phonetics, lexicology, grammar; and it crowns the general course, both theoretical and practical, of the above said language studies. One cannot apply the stylistic knowledge in practice before acquiring the knowledge of the so-called lower language levels – phonetics, word studies and grammar. In stylistics all the previous knowledge is interlinked, used together, and at times even corrected.
Stylistics is considered to be the most obscure branch among other branches of general linguistics. The terms style and stylistics originate from Latin stilus that is a stick once used to write on waxen plates. In Western linguistics the nomination stylistics is not widely used. The works on this scope of problems undertaken in the West are named figures of speech, or rhetoric, or rhetorical devices, etc. The term style is frequently perceived as a list of standard regulations which concern solely written speech and refer to punctuation, capitalization, orthography, abbreviations, compound words, numerals, etc. Thus, the terms style and especially stylistics denoting a definite branch of purely linguistic knowledge was introduced and is mainly used by Russian, former Soviet, linguists. At the same time this linguistic branch has already been recognised and accepted by Western scholars as well.
First, we should differentiate between the basic terms style and stylistics. Style is a broad notion, as it may be applied to architecture, literature, dress, manners, etc. The term style may also mean the learning of how to write clearly, correctly, and emphatically. Besides, it would be rightful to speak about an individual author’s style meaning by this term the peculiarities of a writer’s manner of using language means to achieve the desired effect. Proceeding from this we may say that stylistics can be defined as a special branch of a linguistic theory which deals with different stylistic means producing impression and causing a certain impact upon the reader or listener. The true mechanism of the above said means should not be evident and is normally hidden. Thus, when referring to the speaker, style is the controlled choice of linguistic means, whereas when referring to the reader or listener, style is the variation of conformation of possible expectations that is the observation and parallel interpretation of linguistic specifics.
We should further differentiate between linguistic stylistics and literary stylistics, whose objects of investigation are different.
Thus, for linguistic stylistics these are:
a) styles of the literary language, their development and establishment;
b) the psycholinguistic nature of various stylistic devices: metaphors, epithets, irony, etc.;
c) two basic manifestations of language: spoken or oral, or colloquial and written or bookish, as well as their interrelations.
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For literary stylistics such objects are:
a) the author’s individual outlook;
b) the well-known literary trends such as classicism, romanticism, realism, etc.;
c) genres of literary works such as fable, novel, play, etc.;
d) composition of literary works.
As stylistics is a sister-science of linguistics, though not concerned with the elements of language but with the expressive potentiality of such elements, then it should have the same basic subdivision as general linguistics. So stylistic analysis should and can be carried out upon the following principal levels of linguistics which are: phonological, lexical and syntactical levels. Here we approach the problem of interconnections between stylistics and the above mentioned branches of linguistics:
1) stylistics and phonetics > there is a special branch named the stylistics of sounds, or phonostylistics, which shows how separate sounds, sound combinations, stress, rhythm, intonation, etc. can serve as expressive means;
2) stylistics and lexicology > lexicological studies embrace the words and the vocabulary. But words do not only have denotational meanings, they have connotations as well and are able to express the speaker’s personal attitude, negative or positive, or evaluation of the object in his speech, so this emotional and/or evaluative connotation is the realm of stylistics, lexicological stylistics studies the principles of the usage of words and word combinations performing their expressive functions;
3) stylistics and grammar > stylistics treats grammatical phenomena as expressive means, which add specific colouring to the utterance;
4) syntactical stylistics > the expressive values of the sentences, their structure as well as texts and speech flow.
On the other hand, it should be realised that the whole theory of style can be divided into two large, yet unequal sections:
a) expressive stylistics > the theory of stylistic devices, or expressology;
b) functional stylistics > the theory of how such devices are embodied in utterances forming different styles – those of scientific prose, official documents, publicistic speeches, newspaper articles, fiction.
This subdivision is commonly accepted in the Russian linguistics.
In general, the stylistic theory in its present way is rather a young system of knowledge which was realised and developed since the middle of the 20th century. At the same time the origin of modern stylistics may be traced back to the antique times. Its beginning is associated with the names of such authors of Ancient Greece and Rome as Aristotle, Quintilian and others. The problem of expressive means then named schemata or figures of speech was elaborated in detail in ancient times and served the practical needs of rhetoric. That problem was given further attention in Medieval Times and the Renaissance. Out of the newest times scholars’ contribution into stylistics was made by such foreign researchers as Antoine Meillett (France), J.M. Murrey, F.L. Lucas (Great Britain), Samour Chatman, Richard Lanham (USA) and others. The best-known Russian scholars of the post-war period concerned with the English stylistics are I.R. Galperin, I.V. Arnold, Yu.M. Skrebnev, etc. Russian stylistics was studied by prof. M.N. Kozhina, prof. Th.G. Khazagerov and others.
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Lecture 1.2 Modern English from the Viewpoint of Syntagmatic Stylistics
The modern literary English language is a part of a larger unity named the national language, which in its turn comprises local dialects (or territorial vernaculars) and social dialects (or jargons). The named dialects stay beyond the literary language but interact with it constantly. The literary English language is a historically developed form of the national language serving the state, administrative and cultural needs of the nation; thus it is used in science, press, broadcasting, television. But what is more important, the literary language also serves the needs of everyday communication. The notions of the literary language and dialects mainly belong to the sphere of social linguistics, but they are also used in stylistics, functional stylistics first and foremost.
Modern literary English exists in two permanently interacting functional variants – bookish and colloquial. Though it is commonly thought that the bookish language is met in a written form only while colloquial is expressed orally, it is not always true. Novels and stories may contain examples of colloquial speech as their fragments, plays simply consist of spoken language. On the other hand, a scientist’s report as well as scientist’s everyday speech has every characteristic of the bookish language.
The bookish language is basically that of books, newspapers, decrees, reports, court proceedings, sometimes advertisements, etc. It is chiefly a written language. It is mostly prepared beforehand and delivered in the form of a monologue. Its vocabulary is characterised by a large number of abstract nouns, international words, specialised terminology. It presupposes a usage of many complex syntactical constructions, impersonal sentences dominating among them. From the lexical viewpoint, is noted for the use of special words and combinations like furthermore, likewise, hereinafter, in connection with, on the contrary, etc.
Colloquial literary English mainly serves the needs of everyday communication. It is maintained mostly in the form of a dialogue and is a spoken language. That is why it amply involves those means, which cannot be conveyed in writing: intonation, facial expressions, gestures, the common life experience of the interlocutors who have to permanently show mutual understanding. Hence we may say that the spoken language differs from the written one phoneticly, morphologically, lexically and syntactically.
Ellipses as a speech characteristics came to the language in each form of its manifestation from unprepared colloquial speech, the same as contracted morphological forms like he’d, she’s, we’ve, etc. It has some specific phonetic peculiarities like occasional dropping of the initial h. Another feature is deeper emotionality – colloquial language uses much wider the emphatic forms and units rich in connotations.
Both the bookish and the colloquial English language have much in common as regards their vocabulary, morphology and syntax. They are used and understood by all educated English speakers, but what is more important they both make the single literary English language which gradually and rather slowly changes due to the operation of certain linguistic laws and interactions between the literary and non-literary forms. Traced may be some periods in the language development when the influence of the form upon another becomes stronger. This is in many cases connected with social, political, ideological changes in the life of the speaking community. Thus the processes of democratization bring many colloquial forms into the bookish language. On the other hand, totalitarian tendencies in the society show a trend towards standardizing the spoken language and giving it the form of the written one.
As stylistics treats language phenomena from the point of view of their expressive function it inevitably deals with some specific notions, which are indifferent to a purely linguistic treatment of language categories. The mentioned notions are expressive means and stylistic devices.
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Expressive means are phonetic means, morphological forms, means of word-building, lexical, phraseological and syntactical forms, which function in the language for emotional or logical intensification of the utterance.
Therefore expressive means are not connected with the figurative, or transferred, meaning(s) of the word, but are used to enhance the expressive potentialities of speech and make it more emotional. To the expressive means belong different types of repetition, parallelism, antithesis, the use of archaisms and neologisms, etc.
Stylistics is not only concerned with the nature of expressive means, but also with their ability (or disability) to become a stylistic device, that is a metaphor, a metonymy, an oxymoron, etc.
So a stylistic device, unlike an expressive means, is a conscious and intentional literary use of some language phenomena, expressive means included. If some language fact (or phenomenon) is widely used in the same function, it is generalised in this function and is turns with the passage of time into a stylistic device. Most stylistic devices are aimed at further intensification of the emotional and logical emphasis contained in the corresponding expressive means. But an expressive means has a greater degree of predictability than a stylistic device, while the latter usually carries a greater amount of information. Stylistics deals with both, scrutinizing their nature and functions, possible classifications and possible interpretation.
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