Stylistics of the English Language 3. Outline

1. Stylistics of the English Language 3 Koroteeva Valentina Vladimirovna, [email protected]

2. Outline

Norm and Deviation / Neutrality and Style
Deviation and Foregrounding
Foregrounding mechanisms:
On the level of form
On the level of meaning
On the level of frequency
Lexical Stylistics:
Lexical and Semantic Deviation
Word and LSV
Denotation and Connotation
Connotation Types

3. Norm and Deviation

Style can be defined as
deviation from the lingual norm.
[M. Riffaterre,
R. Jacobson,
M. Halliday]

4. Norm/Neutrality and Deviation

Non-specific neutral units belonging
to all the sublanguages constitute
the norm (stylistic neutrality)
Stylistically coloured/deviant
elements are limited to specific
conditions of communication

5. Deviation and Foregrounding

For deviation to occur there should be a
set of rules, however informal or
intuitive, which are then broken
This deviation from expectation produces
Foregrounding,
which attracts attention
the effect of
and aids memorability

6. Deviation and Foregrounding

The term Foregrounding is borrowed from
art criticism
Deviation for foregrounding purposes is a
universal phenomenon:
art
comics
social behaviour
dress code
psychology, etc.

7. Deviation for Foregrounding Purposes: Visual Art / Semiotics / Psychology

8. Deviation for Foregrounding Purposes: Dress Code

9. Linguistic Deviation – Foregrounding 1

10. Linguistic Deviation – Foregrounding 1 Analysis

the phono-graphical level: t-alliteration
the semantic level: the clash between
the meaning of the pre-modfiier
TREMENDOUS “huge” and the headnoun
TRIFLES “a thing of little or no value”
resulting in oxymoron
the pragmatic level: the deviation
produces a humorous effect and
captivates the reader

11. Linguistic Deviation – Foregrounding 2

A Bill Clinton Joke
Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Al Gore die and go to meet God.
Al goes first.
God asks him: ‘Who are you?’
Al replies: ‘I am the Vice-President of the United States of
America!’
God says: ‘Very well, come and sit on my left-hand side.’
Bill goes next.
God asks him: ‘Who are you?’
Bill replies: ‘I am the President of the United States of America!’
God says: ‘Very well, come and sit on my right-hand side.’
Hillary goes last.
God asks her: ‘And who are you?’
Hillary replies: ‘I am Hillary Clinton, and what are you doing
sitting in my place?!!’

12. Linguistic Deviation – Foregrounding 2 Analysis

structure: there are three parts in the joke which follow a
particular syntactical and morphological pattern
syntax: the syntactical parallelism is broken only in the last
part producing a sort of climax in the set of parallel items
the semantic and pragmatic deviation: ; the disruption of the
parallel structure and the semantic clash (reinforced on the
graphical level – you and my in italics) - God can not be a
regular person; the third speaker fails to follow suit and the
established rules claiming to be the Supreme Power, which
provokes the reader’s thought

13. Linguistic Deviation – Foregrounding 3

The Secret Sits
We all dance round in a ring
and suppose
but the Secret sits in the middle
and knows.
Robert Frost (1874-1963)

14. Linguistic Deviation – Foregrounding 3 Analysis

Graphical and semantic deviation (capitalisation and
personification - Secret)
Syntactical and morphological parallelism
([S+V+PP+Conj+V]Conj[S+V+PP+Conj+V])
Semantic contrast (between stative SIT and dynamic
DANCE; between the usually transitive verbs
SUPPOSE and KNOW and their intransitive use in the
poem; between factive verb KNOW and non-factive
verb SUPPOSE)
Deictic deviation (normally WE composes the center
of the universe, in the poem the SECRET does)

15. Linguistic Deviation – Foregrounding 3 Interpretation

Interpretation requires context, so the
poem could be about:
Kids and Parent
Citizens and President
Students and Teacher
Men and Supreme Power

16. Linguistic Deviation: Levels of Language

Stylistic Lexicology (a _______ ago)
Stylistic Semasiology (I live in London, just
across the pond from the US)
Stylistic Phonetics (rumble of the thunder)
Stylistic Graphology (wonder-ful sunlight)
Stylistic Morphology (unnoticeable and
Stylistic Syntax
ineffectual man)
thee)
(I kissed thee ere
(before)
I killed

17. Stylistic Lexicology: Lexical Deviation

Studies the foregrounding
mechanisms on the level of the
word
The foregrounding mechanisms can
be related to
the deviation in the form,
and the deviation in the meaning,
the deviation in the frequency of the
use of particular parts of speech.

18. DEVIATION in the Meaning and Form: Word Classes

“Normally” there are two classes of
WORDS:
Open class (lexical words): nouns, verbs,
adjectives, adverbs
Closed class (grammatical words): articles,
prepositions, pronouns, etc.
[Mick Short]
Deviation occurs usually within the open
class words, grammatical words help make
this deviation possible: ex. Her life was a
going away.

19. DEVIATION in the Meaning and Form: Word Formation

Affixation: “I’m not joking, I’m realing” (to real –
“to really mean this”)
“She handbagged her European counterparts.” (to
handbag – “to hit with a bag”)
Functional conversion – the change is signaled by
the overall grammatical context: “I decided to
toothbrush my way into the bathroom.” (to
toothbrush – “to try to enter the bathroom while
brushing teeth at the expense of someone already
there ”)
Blending: the forgettle (forget+kettle) – the name
used in an advertising slogan to the Russel Hobbs
kettle which switched itself off

20. DEVIATION in the frequency of the use of some parts of speech

Word Classes and Style:
“verby” style
“nouny” style
adjectival style
?adverbial? style
[Mick Short, lectures]

21. Word Classes – “Verby” Style

Style tips:
Twist and wrap the corners of a plain white shirt
around your waist for a crossover effect…
Get out your party skirt and team it with a day
jacket – for a surprisingly sophisticated evening
look…
Forget about colour rules – mix turquoise with
orange and green…
Dash into your nearest haberdashery department in
search of fabulous buttons…
Wear two pairs of opaque tights for maximum matt
effect…
[Cosmopolitan, February, 1991]

22. Word Classes – “Nouny” Style

“An animated altercation ensued… as to whether
the eighth or ninth of March was the correct
date of the birth of Ireland’s saint. In the course
of the argument cannonballs, scimitars (a saber),
boomerangs, blunderbusses (a musket), stinkpots,
meatchoppers, umbrellas, catapults,
knuckledusters, sandbags, lumps of pig iron
(crude iron) were resorted to and blows were freely
exchanged.”
[Ulysses by James Joyce, p.295]

23. Word Classes – Adjectival Style

“BEAUTIFUL, BOUNTIFUL (generous),
buxom blonde, bashful, yet bawdy
(humourosly vulgar), desires masterful,
masculine,
magnetic
male
for
friendship, frolic and future.”
[Lonely Heart column from a newspaper]

24. Word Classes – Adverbial Style?

Now the party was noisily in full swing. Many
students were singing raucously. Others lurched
drunkenly here and there. Then suddenly there was
a horrifyingly large suckening noise outside. Slowly
and seemingly inexorably the door creaked open.
And a gigantically large slug oozed into the room,
greedily and gratefully, engulfing the
undergraduates as it tried to join in the
disappearing fun.
[Mick Short, lectures]

25. Lexical and Semantic Deviation: Summary

is linked to producing new words
(deviation in the form and meaning)
changes the overall effect of a piece
of text (deviation in the frequency
of the use of parts of speech)
studies the clash between the
contextual meaning of a word and
its denotative meaning

26. Word

“a system/unity of forms and
meanings” [Vinogradov]
“a set of lexico-semantic variants (a
word in one of its meanings)”
in stylistics – “a segment of text
from white space to white space”
[Arnold 2010, p.152]

27. Word and Lexico-semantic Variants*

LSV – a polysemantic word in one of its
meanings
LSV owes its existence to the specificity
of its lexical, morphological and/or
syntactical valency

28. Lexical Valency*

the capability of a word to form lexicosemantic connections with other words
or word groups:
heavy rain
heavy meal
heavy drinker
heavy sleep
heavy burden
heavy industry

29. Word

Word Meaning
grammatical meaning
lexical meaning
(noun, verb, adjective)
denotative
meaning
(logical/nominative meaning)
connotative
meaning

30. Denotative Meaning

is the direct specific meaning
of a word as distinguished from the implied or
associated idea; the association that a
word usually elicits for most speakers
of a language, as distinguished
from those elicited for any individual speaker
because of personal experience.

31. Connotative Meaning

refers to a meaning that is implied by a
word apart from the thing which it
describes explicitly. Words carry cultural
and emotional associations or meanings,
in addition to their literal meanings or
denotations.
for instance: Wall Street as a street in
Lower Manhattan and as a symbol of
wealth and power.

32.

Thank you for your attention