Classification of Syntactical Stylistic Devices

Groups:

I. Patterns of peculiar syntactical arrangement: Inversion, Detachment. Parallelism. Chiasmus.

Repetition. Enumeration. Suspense. Climax.

Antithesis.

II. Peculiar linkage:

Asyndeton.

Polysyndeton.

Gap - sentence - link.

III. Colloquial constructions:

Ellipsis.

Aposiopesis.

Question - in - the narrative.

Represented speech.

IV. Stylistic use of structural meaning:

Rhetorical questions meaning

Litotes.

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15. Syntactical Stylistic Devices Based on Peculiar Syntactical Arrangement.They include: stylistic inversion, detached constructions, parallel constructions , chiasmus, suspense, climax, antithesis. Stylistic Inversion. The English word order is fixed. Any change which doesn't influence the meaning but is only aimed at emphasis is called a stylistic inversion. Stylistic inversion aims at attaching logical stress or additional emotional coloring to the surface meaning of the utterance. Therefore a specific intonation pattern is the inevitable satellite of inversion. The patterns of stylistic inversion are most frequently met in both English prose and poetry: 1. The object is placed at the beginning of the sentence; 2. The attribute is placed after the word it modifies, e. g. With fingers weary and worn; 3. The predicate is placed before the subject, e.g. A good generous prayer it was; 4. The adverbial modifier is placed at the beginning of the sentence, e.g. My dearest daughter, at your feet I fall; 5. Both modifier and predicate stand before the subject, e. g. In went Mr. Pickwick.

Detached constructions. Sometimes one of the secondary members of the sentence is placed so that it seems formally independent of the word it refers to. Being formally independent this it acquires a greater degree of significance and is given prominence by intonation. e.g. She was gone. For good. Parallel construction is a device which may be encountered not so much in the sentence as in the macro - structures dealt with the syntactical whole and the paragraph. The necessary condition in parallel construction is identical or similar, syntactical structure in two or more sentences or parts of sentence. Chiasums is based on repetition of syntactical patterns, but it has a reversed order in one of the utterances, e.g. She was a good sport about all this, but so was he. Suspense - is a compositional device which is realized through the separation of the Predicate from the Subject by deliberate introduction between them of a clause or a sentence. Thus the reader's interest is held up. This device is typical of oratoric style.

Climax (gradation) - an ascending series of words or utterances in which intensity or significance increases step by step, e. g. Every racing car, every racer, every mechanic, every ice - cream van was also plastered with advertising. Antithesis is a SD based on the author's desire to stress certain qualities of the thing by appointing it to another thing possessing antagonistic features. e. g. They speak like saints and act like devils. Enumeration is a SD which separates things, properties or actions brought together and form a chain of grammatically and semantically homogeneous parts of the utterance, e. g. She wasn't sure of anything and more, of him, herself, their friends, her work, her future.

16. Syntactical Stylistic Devices Based on Peculiar Use of Colloquial Constructions

Ellipsis, break in the narrative, represented speech.

Ellipsis - is the omition of a word necessary for the complete syntactical construction of a sentence, but not necessary for understanding. The stylistic function of ellipsis used in author's narration is to change its tempo, to connect its structure, e. g. You feel all right? Anything wrong or what?

Aposiopesis (Break - in - the narrative). Sudden break in the narration has the function to reveal agitated state of the speaker, e. g. On the hall table there were a couple of letters addressed to her. One was the bill. The other...

There are 3 ways of reproducing character's speech:

1) direct speech;

2) indirect speech (reported speech)

3) represented speech.

Represented speech. There is also a device which coveys to the reader the unuttered or inner speech of the character, his thoughts and feelings. This device is also termed represented speech. To distinguish between the two varieties of represented speech we call the representation of the actual utterance through the author's language "uttered represented speech", and the representation of the thoughts and feelings of the character unuttered or inner represented speech.

Question in the narrative. Changes the real nature of a question and turns it into a stylistic device. A question in the narrative is asked and answered by one and the same person, usually the author. It becomes akin to a parenthetical statement with strong emotional implications. e. g. For what is left the poet here? For Greeks a blush - for Greece a tear.

As is seen from these examples the questions asked, unlike rhetorical questions do not contain statements.

Question in the narrative is very often used in oratory. This is explained by one of the leading features of oratorical style - to induce the desired reaction to the content of the speech