Stylistics. Lecture 4. Stylistic relevance of syntactic structures. Expressive syntax.

The term expressive syntax is used to denote the departure from grammatical norms in order to emphasize certain elements of the utterance by structural means. It is based on the implicit synonymy of neutral (traditional) and expressive (transferred) types of syntactic structures. Every functional style is characterized by its own peculiarities of syntax, by its typical constructions introduced into a literary work with a special stylistic effect. In particular, colloquial speech abounds in the redundant syntactic constructions, redistribution of the margins of sentences, elliptical sentences, detached elements of an utterance. Different scholars agree on the main manifestations of expressive syntax (inversion, parallelism etc), but classify them in different ways. In particular, I. Arnold and I.. Galperin use terms syntactic stylistic devices and expressive means almost indiscriminately; A. Morohovs’kyi discriminates between syntactic expressive means, i.e. syntactic models imparting additional or expressive information, subdivided into 3 groups; reduction of the initial model (ellipsis, preterition, nominative sentence, asyndeton), expansion of the initial model (repetition, tautology, polysyndeton, emphatic construction It is/ was he who, emphatic construction with do, parenthesis), change of the order of components (inversion, apposition); syntactic stylistic devices, i.e. transposition of the model in the context that results in the unexpected turn in the logical meaning, subdivided into 3 groups: interrelation of syntactic structures in the context (parallelism, chiasmus, anaphora, epiphora), transposition of the meaning of syntactic structures in the context (rhetorical question) and transposition of the meaning of linking elements (parcellation). Similar view is expressed by V. Kukharenko, though she sticks to the term “syntactic SDs. The researcher characterizes them acc. to their dependence on the completeness of the structure (nominative sentence, ellipsis, apokoinu construction, aposiopesis) and on the arrangement of the members (repetition, parallelism, inversion, detachment). More often, however, scholars use the term FIGURE to term a stylistic device which imagery is formed by changes in the ordinary syntactic structures.

I. Arnold outlines the following main types (groups): 1) inversion, i.e. an unusual distribution of elements; 2) transposition of syntactic structures; 3) introducing elements that contribute no logical information to the utterance (e.g. different kinds of repetitions); 4) leaving out logically relevant elements; 5) breaking off the sentence.

Inversion nay change the meaning of the sentence; combine both grammatical and expressive functions, have functional and stylistic colouring. Stylistic relevance of inversion depends on the thematic / rhematic division of the utterance (initial position of rheme implies the emphatic function of inversion).

Expressive nuances can be obtained by means of functional re-evaluation of syntactic structures, i.e. transposition resulting in the neutralized primary grammatical meaning of the given linguistic unit; transposition of affirmative sentence into interrogative one; “nexus of negation” (implicit negation in affirmation; negation in interrogative structures); threatening meaning in future forms with occasional neologisms based on mimicry.

Rhetorical questions: different lines of approach – disguised assertion, implied negation, appellation to the reader, categorical disagreement with the interlocutor.

Double negation is peculiar to colloquial style or emotional speech.

Litotes (understatement), i.e. negation +N or Adj serves to establish a positive feature, however, somewhat diminished in quality as compared with the synonymous expression with straightforward assertion of the positive feature; two meanings are materialized simultaneously – direct (negation) and transferred (affirmation). Some scholars (I. Morokhovs’kyi, V. Kukharenko) consider litotes to be a lexico-syntactical SD, along with simile, paraphrases and antithesis. It is accounted for by the fact that syntactic SD and expressive means add logical, emotive, expressive information to the utterance4 regardless of the lexical meanings of sentence components In litotes the emphasis depends not only on the arrangement of sentence members but also on the lexico- semantic properties of the utterance. Antithesis is a good example of this being a semantic opposition intensified by parallelism.

Intensity of meaning can be produced by the verb “to go” functioning as an emphatic auxiliary in the idiomatic pattern “go+V” or”go+Ving” (implies disapproval of the action, its irrelevance or unexpectedness).

Types of repetitions: simple contacting one; extended one; frame or circular repetition; catch-up repetition, reduplication, chain repetition; polysyndeton; anaphora; epiphora.

Parallelism is based on the identical or similar arrangement of 2 or more sentences or their parts: complete parallelism, incomplete parallelism, partial one (homogeneous members).

Partial parallelism often results in pleonasm or tautology (pleonasm is stylistically relevant; tautology – useless redundancy.

Ellipsis as an omission of logically relevant elements occurs in Ukrainian more frequently but its expressive degree is higher in English.

The emotional break in the utterance is termed as preterition and aposiopesis. The former implies the interlocutor’s understanding of a missed continuation; the latter presupposes the speaker’s real or affected inability to proceed.

Expressive syntax is often based on the semantic discrepancy of syntactically homogeneous elements: zeugma, a figure of speech in which one word refers to two or more other words, but has to be differently understood in different contexts; apocoinu construction, a blend of two clauses in which one word has 2 syntactic structures (a predicate of one clause and a subject of the other); anacoluthon, a violation of grammatical rules of agreement in the sentence.