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Sound Instrumenting. Graphon. Graphical Means
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As it is clear from the title of the chapter, the stylistic use of phonemes and their graphical representation will be viewed here. Dealing with various cases of phonemic and graphemic foregrounding we should not forget the unilateral nature of a phoneme: this language unit helps to differentiate meaningful lexemes but has no meaning of its own. Cf.: while unable to speak about the semantics of [ou], [ju:], we acknowledge
their sense-differentiating significance in "sew" [sou] шить and "sew" [sju:] спускать воду; or [au], [ou] in "bow" бант, поклон etc.
Still, devoid of denotational or connotational meaning a phoneme, according to recent studies,* has a strong associative and sound-instrumenting power. Well-known are numerous cases of onomatopoeia - the use of words whose sounds imitate those of the signified object or action, such as "hiss", "bowwow", "murmur", "bump", "grumble", "sizzle" and many more.
Imitating the sounds of nature, man, inanimate objects, the acoustic form of the word foregrounds the latter, inevitably emphasizing its meaning too. Thus the phonemic structure of the word proves to be important for the creation of expressive and emotive connotations. A message, containing an onomat-opoeic word is not limited to transmitting the logical informa-tion only, but also supplies the vivid portrayal of the situation described.
Poetry abounds in some specific types of sound-instrument-ing, the leading role belonging to alliteration - the repetition of consonants, usually in the beginning of words, and asson-ance - the repetition of similar vowels, usually in stressed syllables. They both may produce the effect of euphony (a sense of ease and comfort in pronouncing or hearing) or cacophony (a sense of strain and discomfort in pronouncing or hearing). As an example of the first may serve the famous lines of E. A. Poe:
...silken sad uncertain
rustling of each purple curtain...
An example of the second is provided by the unspeakable combination of sounds found in R. Browning:
Nor soul helps flesh now more than flesh helps soul.
To create additional information in a prose discourse sound-instrumenting is seldom used. In contemporary advertizing, mass media and, above all, creative prose sound is foregrounded mainly through the change of its accepted graphical repre-sentation. This intentional violation of the graphical shape of a word (or word combination) used to reflect its pronunciation is called graphon.
* See, e.g. Воронин С. В. Основы фоносемантики. Л., 1982, where the author lays foundations for a new linguistic subject - phonosemantics, claiming symbolic relevance of sound for naming objects.
Graphons, indicating irregularities or carelessness of pronunciation were occasionally introduced into English novels and journalism as early as the beginning of the eighteenth century and since then have acquired an ever growing frequency of usage, popularity among writers, journalists, advertizers, and a continuously widening scope of functions. Graphon proved to be an extremely concise but effective means of supplying information about the speaker's origin, social and educational background, physical or emotional condition, etc. So, when the famous Thackeray's character-butler Yellowplush - impresses his listeners with the learned words pronouncing them as "sellybrated" (celebrated), "benny-violent" (benevolent), "illygitmit" (illegitimate), "jewinile" (juvenile), or when the no less famous Mr. Babbitt uses "pee-rading" (parading), "Eytalians" (Italians), "peepul" (people)-the reader obtains not only the vivid image and the social, cultural, educational characteristics of the personages, but also both Thackeray's and S. Lewis' sarcastic attitude to them.
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On the other hand, "The b-b-b-b-bas-tud-he seen me c-c-c-c-com-ing" in R. P. Warren's Sugar Boy's speech or "You don't mean to thay that thith ith your firth time" (D.C.) show the physical defects of the speakers - the stumbling of one and the lisping of the other.
Graphon, thus individualizing thecharacter's speech, adds to his plausibility, vividness, memorability. At the same time, graphon is very good at conveying the atmosphere of authentic live communication, of the informality of the speech act. Some amalgamated forms, which are the result of strong assimilation, became cliches in contemporary prose dialogue: "gimme" (give me), "lemme" (let me), "gonna" (going to), "gotta" (got to), "coupla" (couple of), "mighta" (might have), "willya" (will you), etc.
This flavour of informality and authenticity brought graphon
popularity with advertizers. Big and small eating places invite customers to attend their "Pik-kwik store", or "The Donut (doughnut) Place", or the "Rite Bread Shop", or the "Wok-in Fast Food Restaurant", etc. The same is true about newspaper, poster and TV advertizing: "Sooper Class Model" cars, "Knee-hi" socks, "Rite Aid" medicines. A recently published book on Cockney was entitled by the authors "The Muvver Tongue",* on back flaps of big freight-cars one can read "Folio me", etc. Graphical changes may reflect not only the peculiarities
* Baltrop, R., Wolveridge, J. The Muvver Tongue. London, 1980.
of pronunciation, but are also used to convey the intensity of the stress, emphasizing and thus foregrounding the stressed words. To such purely graphical means, not involving the viola-tions, we should refer all changes of the type (italics, capi-talization), spacing of graphemes (hyphenation, multiplication) and of lines. The latter was widely exercised in Russian poetry by V. Mayakovsky, famous for his "steps" in verse lines, or A. Voznesensky. In English the most often referred to "graphic-al imagist" was E. E. Cummings.
According to the frequency of usage, variability of functions, the first place among graphical means of foregrounding is occupied by italics. Besides italicizing words to add to their logical or emotive significance, separate syllables and morphemes may also be emphasized by italics (which is highly characteristic of D. Salinger or T. Capote). Intensity of speech (often in commands) is transmitted through the multiplication of a grapheme or capitalization of the word, as in Babbitt's shriek "Аlllll aboarrrrrd", or in the desperate appeal in A. Huxley's Brave New World-" Help.Help. HELP." Hyphena-tion of a word suggests the rhymed or clipped manner in which it is uttered as in the humiliating comment from Fl. O'Connor's story-"grinning like a chim-pan-zee".
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Summing up the informational options of the graphical arrangement of a word (a line, a discourse), one sees their varied application for re-creating the individual and social peculiarities of the speaker, the atmosphere of the communi-cation act-all aimed at revealing and emphasizing the author's viewpoint.
Assignments for Self-Control
1. What is sound-instrumenting?
2. What cases of sound-instrumenting do you know?
3. What is graphon?
4. What types and functions of graphon do you know?
5. What is achieved by the graphical changes of writing-
its type, the spacing of graphemes and lines?
6. Which phono-graphical means are predominantly used in
prose and which ones in poetry?
EXERCISES
I. Indicate the causes and effects of the following cases of alliteration, assonance and onomatopoeia:
1. Streaked by a quarter moon, the Mediterranean shushed gently into the beach. (I. Sh.)
2. He swallowed the hint with a gulp and a gasp and a grin.
(R. K.)
3. His wife was shrill, languid, handsome and horrible.
(Sc. F.)
4. The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free. (S. C.)
5. The Italian trio tut-tutted their tongues at me. (T. C.)
6. You, Jean, long, lanky lath of a lousy bastard! (O'C.)
7. To sit in solemn silence in a dull dark dock,
In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock,
Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block. (W. C.)
8. They all lounged, and loitered, and slunk about, with as
little spirit or purpose as the beasts in a menagerie. (D.)
9. "Luscious, languid and lustful, isn't she?"
"Those are not the correct epithets. She is-ог rather was surly, lustrous and sadistic." (E. W.)
10. Then, with an enormous, shattering rumble, sludge-
puff, sludge-puff, the train came into the station. (A. S.)
11. "Sh-sh."
"But I am whispering." This continual shushing an-noyed him. (A. H.)
12. Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky. (Ch. R.)
13. Dreadful young creatures-squealing and squawking. (C.)
14. The quick crackling of dry wood aflame cut through the night. (St. H.)
15. Here the rain did not fall. It was stopped high above by that roof of green shingles. From there it dripped down slowly, leaf to leaf, or ran down the stems and branches. Despite the heaviness of the downpour which now purred loudly in their ears from just outside, here there was only a low rustle of slow occasional dripping. (J.)
II. Indicate the kind of additional information about the speaker supplied by graphon:
1. "Hey," he said, entering the library. "Where's the heart section?"
"The what?"
He had the thickest sort of southern Negro dialect and the only word that came clear to me was the one that sounded like heart.
"How do you spell it," I said.
"Heart, Man, pictures. Drawing books. Where you got them?"
"You mean art books? Reproductions?" He took my polysyllabic word for it. "Yea, they's them." (Ph. R.)
2. "It don't take no nerve to do somepin when there ain't
nothing else you can do. We ain't gonna die out. People is
goin' on-changin' a little may be-but goin' right on." (J. St.)
3. "And remember, Mon-sewer O'Hayer says you got to
straighten up this mess sometime today." (J.)
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4. "I even heard they demanded sexual liberty. Yes, sir,
Sex-You-All liberty." (J. K.)
5. "Ye've a duty to the public don'tcher know that, a duty
to the great English public?" said George reproachfully.
"Here, lemme handle this, kiddar," said Tiger. "Gorra maintain strength, you," said George. "Ah'm fightin' fit," said Tiger. (S. Ch.)
6. "Oh, that's it, is it?" said Sam. "I was afeerd, from
his manner, that he might ha' forgotten to take pepper with
that 'ere last cowcumber he et. Set down, sir, ve make no
extra charge for the settin' down, as the king remarked when
he blowed up his ministers." (D.)
7. "Well, I dunno. I'll show you summat." (St. B.)
8. "De old Foolosopher, like Hickey calls yarn, ain't
yuh?" (O'N.)
9. "I had a coach with a little seat in fwont with an iwon
wail for the dwiver." (D.)*
10. "The Count," explained the German officer, "expegs
you chentlemen at eight-dirty." (С. Н.)
11. Said Kipps one day, "As'e-I should say, ah, has'e...
Ye know, I got a lot of difficulty with them two words, which
is which."
"Well, 'as' is a conjunction, and 'has' is a verb." "I know," said Kipps, "but when is 'has' a conjunction, and when is 'as' a verb?" (H. W.)
12. Wilson was a little hurt. "Listen, boy," he told him.
"Ah may not be able to read eve'thin' so good, but they ain't
a thing Ah can't do if Ah set mah mind to it." (N. M.)
* The affected manner of Lord Muttonhead's pronunciation was well preserved in the Russian translation of the Pickwick Papers: «...с гешеткой впегеди для кучега».
III. Think of the causes originating graphon (young age, a physical defect
of speech, lack of education, the influence of dialectal norms, affectation,
intoxication, carelessness in speech, etc.):
1. He began to render the famous tune "I lost my heart
in an English garden, Just where the roses of England grow"
with much feeling:
"Ah-ee last mah-ee hawrt een ahn Angleesh gawrden, Jost whahr thah rawzaz ahv Angland graw." (H. C.)
2. She mimicked a lisp: "I don't weally know wevver I'm
a good girl. The last thing he'll do would be to be mixed with
a howwid woman." (J. Br.)
3. "All the village dogs are no-'count mongrels, Papa
says. Fish-gut eaters and no class a-tall; this here dog, he
got insteek." (К. К.)
4. "My daddy's coming tomorrow on a nairplane." (S.)
5. After a hum a beautiful Negress sings "Without a song,
the dahay would nehever end." (U.)
6. "Oh, well, then, you just trot over to the table and
make your little mommy a gweat big dwink." (E. A.)
7. "I allus remember me man sayin' to me when I passed
me scholarship—'You break one o'my winders an' I'll skin ye
alive'." (St. B.)
8. He spoke with the flat ugly "a" and withered "r" of
Boston Irish, and Levi looked up at him and mimicked "All
right, I'll give the caaads a break and staaat playing." (N. M.)
9. "Whereja get all these pictures?" he said. "Meetcha at
the corner. Wuddaya think she's doing out there?" (S.)
10. "Lookat him go. D'javer see him walk home from school?
You're French Canadian, aintcha?" (J. K.)
IV. State the function of graphon in captions, posters, advertisements,
etc. repeatedly used in American press, TV, roadside advertizing:
1. Weather forecast for today: Hi 59, Lo 32, Wind lite.
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2. We recommend a Sixty-seconds meal-Steak-Umm.
3. Choose the plane with "Finah Than Dinah" on its side.
4. Best jeans for this Jeaneration.
5. Follow our advice: Drinka Pinta Milka Day.
6. Terry's Floor Fashions: We make 'em-you walk on 'em.
7. Our offer is S 15.00 per WK.
8. Thanx for the purchase.
9. Ev'ybody uses our wunnerful Rackfeed Drills.
V. Analyse the following extract from Artemus Ward:*
"Sit down, my fren'; sed the man in black close; "yu mis
komprehend me. I meen that the perlitercal ellermunts are orecast with black klouds, 4 boden a friteful storm."
"Wall," replide I, "in regard to perlittercal ellerfunts i don't know as how but what they is as good as enny other kind of ellerfunts. But i maik bold to say thay is all a ornery set and unpleasant to hav round. They air powerful hevy eaters and take up a right smart chans of room."
The man in black close rusht up to me and sed, "How dair yu insult my neece, yu horey heded vagabone? Yu base exhibbiter of low wax figgers - you woolf in sheep's close," and sow 4th.
VI. State the functions and the type of the following graphical expressive means:
1. Piglet, sitting in the running Kanga's pocket, substi-
tuting the kidnapped Roo, thinks:
this shall take
"If is I never to
flying really it." (M.)
2. Kiddies and grown-ups too-oo-oo
We haven't enough to do-oo-oo. (R. K.)
3. "Hey," he said "is it a goddamn cardroom? or a latrine?
Attensh—HUT! Da-ress right! DHRESS! (J.)
4. "When Will's ma was down here keeping house for him-
she used to run in to see me, real often." (S. L.)
5. He missed our father very much. He was s-1-a-i-n in
North Africa. (S.)
6. His voice began on a medium key, and climbed steadily
up till it reached a certain point, where it bore with strong
emphasis upon the topmost word, and then plunged down as if
from a spring board:
beds
flowery
on
skies
the
to
carried
be
I
Shall of ease,
* Artemus Ward is the pseudonym of C. F. Browne (1834-67), well known for his record of the imaginary adventures of an itinerant half-literate showman.
Blood
throu'
sailed
and
prize
the
toe
fought
others
Whilst у seas? (M. T.)
7. "We'll teach the children to look at things. Don't let
the world pass you by, I shall tell them. For the sun, I shall
say, open your eyes for that laaaarge sun " (A. W.)
8. "Now listen, Ed, stop that, now. I'm desperate. I am
desperate, Ed, do you hear?" (Dr.)
9. "Adieu you, old man, grey. I pity you, and I de-spise
you." (D.)
10. "ALL our troubles are over, old girl," he said fondly.
"We can put a bit by now for a rainy day." (S. M.)
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