VSUE

Lectures on STYLISTICS OF THE ENGLISH

LANGUAGEPresented by Tamara Ivanovna

LeontievaForeign Languages Center, Department of

Intercultural Communication and Translation

2008

STRATIFICATION of English Vocabulary

Literary and Colloquial Strata of Words

King Solomon’s Verse

What is man, that Thou are mindful of him? And the son of man, that Thou visitest him? Thou madest him lower than the angels; To crown him with glory and worship. Thou makest him to have dominion of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet; All sheep and oxen; yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea; And whatsoever walketh through the paths of the seas.

William Shakespeare, HAMLET, 1601

What piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!

Dr. L.A.Borrodaile, 1912

Man is metazone, tribloblastic, chordate, vertebrate, pentadactyle, mammalian, eutherian, primate… . The main outlines of each of his principal systems of organs may be traced back, like those of other mammals, to the fishes.

Stylistic Classification of English Vocabulary

General considerations

Is it possible to classify the vocabulary?

Differences of opinion

Three layers of English vocabulary

1. Neutral layer

2. Literary layer

(Super-neutral words)

3. Colloquial layer

(Sub-neutral words)

Study the following examples:

Colloquial Neutral Literary

kid child infant

comfy comfortable commodious

get out go away retire

flapper young girl maiden

daddy father parent

LITERARY STRATUM OF WORDS

1. Archaisms

2. Alienisms and foreign words

3. Terms and learned words

4. Poetic words

5. Literary coinages (including nonce - words)

ARCHAISMS a) obsolete words: methinks (it seems to

me), nay (no); a palfrey (a small horse),

aforesaid, hereinafternamed;

b) archaisms proper (Fr.): troth (faith);

c) historical words: knight, spear; worrier;

d) poetic words: woe (sorrow), haply (perhaps);

e) morphological forms: singest, brethren, thou, thou makest.

Alienisms and Foreign Words

1. Alien words - borrowings that have English equivalents: chic (stylish), ad infinitum (to infinity), babushka (kerchief tied under the chin).

2. Foreign words - do not belong to the English vocabulary: udarnik, a propos, perestroika, Deutsche Soldaten. Ex.: 1) «She had said ‘Au revoir!’ Not good-bye!» (J.Galsworthy)

2) «We have time, Herr Zippmann, to try your schnapps.” (Heim)

Alien or foreign?1. Ivan Ilyich was le phenix de la famille, as

they used to say (L.Tolstoy).

2. Canada has a per capita income of about $17,000.

3. «I’ll go upstairs to get shmotki», I said (A.Burgess. A Clockwork Orange).

4. «Avanti, my dear and welcome. Get her a glass, Oliver» (B.Trapido. Brother of the more famous Jack).

TERMS

Terms - words denoting objects, processes, phenomena of science, humanities, technique.

1) Single terms: psychology, equity, function.

2) Terms consisting of several words: subject-matter, computer-aided system, belles-lettres style.

Within a literary work terms may acquire a satirical effect.

Terms in a satirical function

«What a fool Rawdon Crawley has been», Clump replied, «to go and marry a governess! There was something about the girl too.»

«Green eyes, fair skin, pretty figure, famous frontal development», Squills remarked (W.M.Thackeray, Vanity Fair).

Literary coinages (including nonce-words)

Two types of literary neologisms:

1. Designate new-born concepts, terminological coinages: intertextuality, профессиограмма, immunodeficiency, ecosystem.

2. Create expressiveness of the utterance (nonce-words): anti-globalist, musicdom, bananarama, LASER (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation).

NONCE WORDSNonce-words are chance words, occasional

words, words created for the given occasion with the existing words by means of affixation, composition, conversion, etc. Ex.: There was a balconyful of gentlemen…

The word balconyful was coined by analogy with the words “mouthful”, “spoonful”, “handful”. Nonce-words produce a humorous effect. Being used just once, they disappear completely.

Colloquial Stratum of WordsSub-neutral Words

1. Slang

2. Vulgarisms

3. Jargonisms

4. Dialectal words

SLANG

Slang is a non-standard colloquial layer, outside the literary language but forcing its way into it.

Function - to characterize the personage, to create a certain atmosphere (that of scandal, violence or intolerance or humor) in the literary text.

WHY SLANG?

1. Striving for novelty of expression: intentional substitutes of neutral and elevated words and expressions: cripes instead of Christ.

2. Disguising from outsiders the meaning of what was said: Look at that chick! She’s really on fire. Посмотри на эту бабу. Клевая, не правда ли?

Stylistic Sources of Slang

1/ Metaphor: He snaked out of here without his overcoat. Он выскользнул отсюда, оставив свое пальто.

2/ Metonymy: skirt (girl)

3/ Hyperbole: killing (astonishing)

4/ Understatement: whistle (flute)

5/ Clear as mud (irony).

VULGARISMS (SWEAR WORDS)

Vulgarisms: stylistically lowest group of words which are considered offensive for polite usage.

a) abusive words, e.g. son of a bitch; b) hackneyed vulgar words: devil, bloody.

Function: to express strong emotions, mainly annoyance, anger, vexation and the like. Found in direct speech.

ANSWER THE QUESTION

How are vulgarims euphemistically called?

(A euphemism - is a word or phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by a conventionally more acceptable one:

to die ---> to pass away, to be no more, etc.

Answer: sdrow rettel-ruof (mirror-reading)

JARGONISMSJargonisms: words functioning in

limited spheres of society:

a) professional jargonisms;

b) social jargonisms.

Function: to replace those words which already exist in the language in order to make their speech incoherent to outsiders.

Professional Jargonisms

Professional jargonisms are denominations of things, phenomena and process characteristic of given profession opposed to the official terms of this professional sphere.

Function: They are used by representatives

of the profession to facilitate the communication.

Social Jargonisms

Social jargonisms are made of words used to denote non-professional thing relevant for representatives of the given social group with common interests (e.g., music fans, drug addicts and the like).

Function: they are used by representatives of the given group to show that the speaker also belongs to it and sometimes for the purpose of making speech incoherent to outsiders.

DIALECTAL WORDS

Dialectal words are words and phrases characteristic of a certain locality.They reflect peculiarities of provincialism in phonetics and vocabulary.

Of special significance for English literature is Cockney - the dialect of the uneducated people in London.

COCKNEY

1) The diphthong [ei] is replaced by [ai]: to sy, to py instead of to say, to pay;

2) the diphthong [au] is replaced by monophthong [a:]: nah then instead of «now then»;

3) words like «manners», «thank you» are pronounced as menners, thenk you.

4) the suffix ”- ing” is pronounced as [n]: sittin’, standin’.

HOME ASSIGNMENT1. Ивашкин М.П. и др. A Manual of English

Stylistics. - Pp.22-28.

2. Galperin I.R. STYLISTICS. - Pp. 62-95; 103-117. Copy the drawing on p.63.

3. Глазунов С.А. Новый нагло-русский словарь современной разговорной лексики. - М.: Рус. яз., 1998. - 776 с.

4. Make a copy of Test No 2: Stylistic Lexicology and answer all the points. From № 1 of this list of literature. Pp.36-37.