SYNTACTICAL STYLISTICS

Syntax deals with the patterns of word arrangement and formulates roles for correct sentence building. Sometimes a need arises to intensify the utterance and the normative structures are replaced by what is traditionally called rhetorical figures, figures of speech or syntactical stylistic devices. Patterns of such devices are well-known and they are systematised according to some principles. For example, I.R Galperin singles out the following principles: 1) compositional patterns of syntactical arrangement, 2) peculiar linkage, 3) particular use of colloquial constructions, 4) stylistic use of structural meaning. Here is a table showing the distribution of syntactical intensifiers.

GROUP 1. ARRANGEMENT

The English language is characterised by such specific syntactical feature as fixed word order. Normative is the following word order in a sentence, presented symbolically Subject, Predicate, Object, Modifier. Any shift from this word order results in some effect, and deviant structures can carry stylistic function.

Stylistic Inversion

Inversion (stylistic)(инверсия) is a syntactical stylistic device in which the direct word order is changed either completely so that the predicate precedes the subject (complete inversion), or partially so that the object precedes the subject-predicate pair (partial inversion)

Of all my old association, of all my old pursuits and hopes, of all the living and the dead world, this one poor soul alone comes natural to me. (Ch.Dickens)

To a medical student the final examinations are something like death ... (R.Gordon) - Для студента-медика выпускные экзамены - смерти подобны ...

•• aims at attaching logical stress or additional emotional colouring to the surface meaning of the utterance (I.R.G.)

Down dropped the breeze ... (Coleridge)

•• нарушение обычного порядка следования членов предложения, в результате которого какой-нибудь элемент отказывается выделенным и получает специальные коннотации эмоциональности и экспрессивности (I.V.A.)

Inversion or displacement of some component of a sentence aims at giving additional logical or emotional stress to the meaning of the utterance. Inversion may be complete - when the predicate is displaced, and partial with the displacement of secondary members of the sentence.

There are 5 structural types of inversion:

1) the object is placed in pre-position

e.g. Over everything she brooded and brooded:

2) the attribute is placed after the word it modifies

e.g. Spring begins with the first narcissus, rather cold and shy and wintry;

3) the predicative is placed before the subject

e.g. Shameless and fascinating the advertisements were;

4) the adverbial modifier is placed at the beginning of the sentence e.g. Weakly she climbed the stairs and opened the door;

5) both the modifier and predicate stand before the subject

e.g. There was a rustling m the bushes on his left and suddenly like a cuckoo from a nursery clock out popped a large black bird.

Detachment

Detachment – a stylistic device based on singling out a secondary member of the sentence with the help of punctuation (intonation)

I have to beg you nearly killed, ingloriously, in a jeep accident. (I.Shaw)

I have to beg you for money. Daily. (S.Lewis)

She was crazy about you. In the beginning. (R.P.Warren)

•• placing one of the secondary parts of a sentence by some specific consideration of the writer so that it seems formally independent of the word it logically refers to (I.R.G.)

Daylight was dying, the moon rising, gold behind the poplars. (J.Galsworthy)

'I want to go' he said, miserable. (J.Galsworthy)

It is a stylistic device based on the author's desire to give a greater significance to a secondary member of the sentence, usually an attribute or an adverbial modifier. This member is detached from the rest of the sentence by means of such punctuation marks as commas, dashes or full stops. Being formally torn away from the word it syntactically depends on this particular element is closely related to it semantically e.g. He looked round, expectant. She was gone. For good.

Sometimes a detached construction may acquire the form of an explanatory or qualifying remark put into a sentence. Such variant of detachment is called parenthesis. In writing parenthesis is indicated by commas, brackets or dashes. e.g. It was indeed, to Forsyte eyes, an odd house. I know (if only I could forget it) that you killed her.

Parenthesis (парентеза) – a qualifying, explanatory or appositive word, phrase, clause, sentence, or other sequence which interrupts a syntactic construction without otherwise affecting it, having often a characteristic intonation and indicated in writing by commas, brackets or dashes.

Parallel Constructions

The necessary condition in parallel constructions is identical or similar syntactical structure in two or more sentences or parts of a sentence in close succession,

e.g. Summer was silent as well. In much of what had been the United States, no birds sang, no dogs barked, no frogs croaked, no fishes leaped. The south had been truly shabby, faded and desperate.

The taps had been large and brass, the floor had been of spoiled marble, the staircases had been wide, the porter had been thirteen years old, and the roof garden had been utterly empty, deserted like a closed building site.

The two examples show that one should differentiate complete (as in the first case) and incomplete, or partial parallelism (as in the second example).

Parallel construction (параллельная конструкция) – reiteration of the structure of several sentences (clauses), and not of their lexical "flesh". Almost always includes some type of lexical repetition , and such a convergence produces a very strong effect, foregrounding at one go logical, rhythmic, emotive and expressive aspects of the utterance. (V.A.K.)

I notice that father's is a large hand, but never a heavy one when it touches me, and that father's is a rough voice but never an angry one when it speaks to me. (T.Dreiser)

From room to room they went, hand in hand, lifting here, opening there, making sure -- a ghostly couple. (V.Woolf)

When a man wants to kill a tiger he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to kill a man it is ferocity. (I.V.A.)

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see

So long lives this and this gives life to thee. (W.Shakespeare - XVIII)

Chiasmus

Chiasmus is also based on the repetition of syntactical patterns, but it has a reversed order in one of the two utterances.

e.g. She was a good sport about all this, but so was he.

Chiasmus is a syntactical, not a lexical device and one must differentiate it from parallel constructions or epigrams.

e.g. He sang as he walked and he walked as he sang, and got more inflated every minute.

Chiasmus хиазм

1. reversed parallelism of the structure of several sentences (clauses)

2. inversion of the first construction in the second part (V.A.K.)

If the first sentence (clause) has a direct word order - SPO, the second one will have it inverted - OPS.

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see

So long lives this and this gives life to thee. (W.Shakespeare - XVIII)

•• a group of stylistic device s based on repetition of a syntactical pattern, but it has a cross order of words and phrases (I.R.G.)

Down dropped the breeze, //

The sails dropped down. (Coleridge)

As high as we have mounted in delight //

In our dejection do we ink as low. (Wordsworth)

Lexico-Syntactical Repetition

It is a stylistic device based on repeating words, word groups or sentences for some stylistic purposes: to draw the attention of the reader to the key-word of the utterance, to emphasise the main idea of the sentence. There are several formal varieties of repetition.

Simple Repetition