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II. SEM – based on the presence of extra elements (repetition, polysyndeton, parenthesis)
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Repetition
Repetition – is one of the most significant stylistic means employed in every functional style. According to the position of the repeated unit repetition is classified into the following types: It has already been pointed out that repetition is an expressive means of language used when the speaker is under the stress of strong emotion. When used as a stylistic device, repetition acquires quite different functions. It does not aim at making a direct emotional impact. On the contrary, the SD of repetition aims at logical emphasis, an emphasis necessary to fix the attention of the reader on the key-word of the utterance. Repetition is classified according to compositional patterns. If the repeated word (or phrase) comes at the beginning of two or more consecutive sentences, clauses or phrases, we have anaphora. If the repeated unit is placed at the end of consecutive sentences, clauses or phrases, we have the type of repetition called epiphora. Among other compositional models of repetition is linking or reduplication. The structure of this device is the following: the last word or phrase of one part of an utterance is repeated at the beginning of the next part, thus hooking the two parts together.
Ordinary repetition (it offers no fixed place for a repeated unit): She went to bed again, and thought and thought and thought it over, and over again.
Anaphora – is based on the repetition of an initial word, or phrase, or sentence in successive phrases, sentences: Those evening bells, those evening bells…
Epiphora – is based on the repetition of the last word, phrase or sentence in successive phrases, sentences: I ate meat with them, drank wine with them, automobiled with them and studied with them.
Framing or ring repetition – is based on the repetition of a word, phrase or sentence at the beginning and at the end of a phrase, sentence or paragraph: No wonder, his father wanted to know what Bossiney meant, no wonder.
Anadiplosis (подхват ) – is a repetition of a concluding word, phrase or sentence at the beginning of the following phrase, sentence or paragraph. Sometimes anadiplosis is used several times in one utterance. Then – this kind of repetition is called chain repetition: A smile would come into Mr. Pickwick’s face, the smile extended into a laugh, the laugh – into a roar, and the roar became general. As a result of repetition the word acquires connotations, new shades of meaning.
Morphological repetition – is a repetition based on the repetition of a morpheme: untried, unnoticed, undirected. Women, the richest, the cleverest, the kindest, they fling themselves at me.
One more type occurs in a longer space of a text, within a chapter or sometimes it reappears throughout the novel. As a result this word or phrase acquires a symbolic force. It’s distant repetition.
Repetition intensifies the utterance, fixes the repeated unit in the memory of the reader, gives rhythmical sounding to the utterance, shows durability or monotony, expresses despair, the idea of continuation.
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Stylistic functions of repetition are various and many-sided. Besides emphasizing the most important part of the utterance, rendering the emotions of the speaker or showing his emotive attitude towards the object described, it may play a minor stylistic role, showing the durability of action, and to a lesser degree the emotions following it.
Repetition, deliberately used by the author to better emphasize his sentiments, should not be mixed with pleonasm – an excessive, uneconomic usage of unnecessary, extra words, which shows the inability of the writer to express his ideas in a precise and clear manner.
Polysyndeton
Polysyndeton – is a syntactical device based on the repetition of conjunctions, connectives and prepositions, either within a sentence or between sentences. It is used to create a certain rhythmical effect or to produce the effect of monotony: Should you ask me, whence these stories? Whence these legends and traditions, with the odours of the forest, with the dew, and damp of meadows, with the curly smoke of wigwams, with the rushing of great rivers, with their frequent repetitions, …(The Song of Hiawatha by H. Longfellow).
Polysyndeton is the stylistic device of connecting sentences, or phrases, or syntagms, or words by using connectives (mostly conjunctions and prepositions) before each component part, as in: " The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. " (Ch. Dickens) The repetition of conjunctions and other means of connection makes an utterance more rhythmical; so much so that prose may even seem like verse. The conjunctions and other connectives, being generally unstressed elements, when placed before each meaningful member, will cause the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables — the essential requirement of rhythm in verse. Hence, one of the functions of polysyndeton is a rhythmical one. In addition to this, polysyndeton has a disintegrating function. It generally combines homogeneous elements of thought into one whole resembling enumeration. But, unlike enumeration, which integrates both homogeneous and heterogeneous elements into one whole, polysyndeton causes each member of a string of facts to stand out conspicuously. That is why we say that polysyndeton has a disintegrating function.
Polysyndeton is sometimes used to retard the action and to create the stylistic effect of suspense.
Besides, polysyndeton is one of the means used to create a certain rhythmical effect.
e. g. He put on his coat and found his mug and plate and knife and went outside.
Parenthesis
Parenthesis is a qualifying, explanatory or appositive word, phrase, clause, sentence, or other sequence which interrupts a syntactic construction without otherwise affecting it, having often a characteristic intonation and indicated in writing by commas, brackets or dashes.
Parenthesis - exclamatory sentences, phrases or words which are inserted into a sentence without being grammatically connected with it: “…he was struck by the thought (what devil’s whisper? – what evil hint of an evil spirit? ) – supposing that he and Roberta, - no, say he and Sondra – (no, Sondra could swim so well, and so could he) – he and Roberta were in a small boat somewhere…” (Th. Dreiser. The American Tragedy). Graphically parenthesis is marked by ( ), –. Parenthesis allows to conduct the narration in two planes: the succession of events is given and the author’s comment on them. Functions: emotional colouring, comical effect.
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