SYNTACTICAL STYLISTIC DEVICES.

3.1. SD BASED ON FORMAL AND SEMANTIC INTERACTION OF SYNTACTICAL

CONSTRUCTIONS.

Parallelism is a repetition in close succession of the constructions formed by a similar syntactical pattern. Like inversion, parallelism may be complete and partial. Complete parallelism is observed when the syntactical pattern of the sentence that follows is completely similar to the proceeding one, e.g. He door-bell didn't ring. His telephonebell didn't ring (D. Hammett).

Parallelism is considered to be partial when either the beginning or the end of several neighbouring sentences are structurally similar, e.g. / want to see the Gorgensens together at home, I want to see Macawlay, and I want to see Studsy Burke (D.Hammett).

Chiasmus (reversed parallelism) is a kind of parallelism where the word order of the sentence or clause that follows becomes inverted, e.g. He sat and watched me, I sat and watched him (D.Hammett).

The main stylistic function of chiasmus is to emphasise this or that part of the utterance , to break the rhythm and monotony of parallelism, e.g. Guild waited for me to say something, I waited for him (D. Hammett).

Anaphora is a repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences, e.g. Ergo, she didn't. Ergo, there never was such a bet. Ergo, Beresford was lying. Ergo, Beresford wanted to get hold of those chocolates for some reason other than he stated (A.Berkley).

Anaphora contributes greatly to creating a certain rhythm of the narrative.

Epiphora is the repetition of the final words or word-groups in succeeding sentences or clauses, e.g. / come to you on the level. Studsy says you are on the level. Be on the level (D. Hammett).

3.2. SD BASED ON THE TRANSPOSITION OF SYNTACTICAL MEANING.

Rhetorical questions are negative or affirmative statements rather than questions, possible answers being implied by the question itself, e.g. Is the day of the supernatural over? (A.Christie).

Rhetorical questions can often be found in modern fiction in the descriptions of the character's inner state, his/her meditations and reflections, e.g. And then, like a douche of cold water, came the horrible thought, was she right? (A.Christie).

3.3. SD BASED ON THE TRANSFORMATION OF TYPES AND MEANS OF SYNTACTIC CONNECTION.

Parcellation is a deliberate break of the sentence structure into two or more isolated parts, separated by a pause and a period. Parcellation is typical of colloquial speech. The main stylistic functions of parcellation are as follows:

1) specification of some concepts or facts, e.g. His wife had told him only the night before that he was getting a habit of it. Curious things, habits (A. Christie);

2) characterisation of the personages' emotional state, e.g. It angered him finally. With a curious sort of anger. Detached, somehow, separate from himself (C.B.Gilford);

3) description of the events or giving the personages' portrayal, e.g. I'd say he was thirty-five or -six. Sallow, dark hair and eyes, with the eyes set pretty close together, big mouth, long limp nose, bat-wing ears - shifty-looking (D. Hammett); A touring car, large, black, powerfully engined and with lowered curtains, came from the rear... Possibly a scout (D. Hammett).

The usage of coordination instead of subordination helps the author to show different planes of narration, in this case the connection itself is more important stylistically than the contents of the sentence, e.g. He was more enthusiastic about America than ever, and he was not so simple, and he was not so nice (E. Hemingway).

STYLISTIC SEMASIOLOGY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

1. Semasiology is a branch of linguistics which studies semantics or meaning of linguistic units belonging to different language levels.

Lexical semasiology analyses the meaning of words and word combinations, relations between these meanings and the changes these meanings undergo.

Stylistic semasiology is concerned only with those semantic relations and changes which form the basis of EM and SD.

The subject-matter of stylistic semasiology is stylistic semantics ,i.e. additional meanings of a language unit which may be given rise to by:

1) the unusual denotative reference of words, word-combinations, utterances and texts (EM); or

2) the unusual distribution of the meanings of these units (SD). Semasiological EM are figures of substitution, i.e. different means of secondary

nomination. The latter is based on the usage of existing words and word-combinations to denote new notions or to give a new name to the already known objects.

Secondary nomination is not completely arbitrary, it is carried out according to certain principles or rules. Most commonly the transfer of a name occurs: 1) on the basis of similarity or likeness (real or imaginary) of two objects belonging to different areas of reality, which are regarded as such due to individual or collective perception (rat- spy, rabbit- coward);

2) on the basis of contiguity or some logical (usually objective) relations or associations between different objects (chicken -food, hat- man in a hat). Figures of substitution are secondary nomination units which either exist in the language as a system or are formed in speech on the basis of recurrent patterns. Secondary nomination units or tropes stand in paradigmatic (synonymic, or rather homofunctional) relations to corresponding primary nomination units. They are marked members of stylistic oppositions because they have connotations or additional stylistic meanings. Figures of substitution in English can be presented in the following table:

2. FIGURES OF QUANTITY.

Here we refer tropes and figures of speech based on the comparison of two different objects or phenomena having a common feature expressed with a certain degree of intensity. If this feature characterises the referent in a deliberately greater degree, it may be regarded as hyperbole, if this feature is ascribed to the referent in a deliberately less degree, it is considered to be meiosis or litotes, as a structural variety of the latter.

Hyperbole is a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration aimed at intensifying one of the features of the object in question. An overstatement may be considered hyperbole only when the exaggeration is deliberate and both the speaker and the listener are aware of it. Hyperbole is mainly used to intensify physical qualities of objects or people: size, colour, quantity, age etc., e.g. Her family is one aunt about a thousand years old (F.Sc. Fitzgerald).

The use of hyperbole may show the overflow of emotions, e.g. ! loved Ophelia; forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum (W.Shakespeare).

Hyperbole in oral speech is often used to intensify a statement, e.g. She was a giant of a woman (Fl. O'Connor).

Hyperbole, as any other semasiological EM, may become trite through frequent repetition: e.g. forages, scared to death, I beg thousand pardons etc.

Meiosis is a figure of speech opposite to hyperbole. This is a deliberate understatement, or underestimation of some feature of an object or phenomena with the aim of intensifying the expressiveness of speech. The features stressed are usually size, volume, distance, time etc. Meiosis is mainly used in oral speech where it usually emphasises the insignificance of an object, e.g. She wore a pink hat, the size of a button (J. Reed), a pretty penny, Tom Thumb etc.

Litotes differs from meiosis by both its contents and structure. Litotes presents a statement in the form of negation. Like rhetorical questions, litotes can be regarded as the transposition of a syntactical construction. Litotes has a specific semantic and syntactic structure: the usage of not before a word with a negative prefix, e.g. Julia was not dissatisfied with herself (W.S.Maugham).

This EM is used in oral speech to weaken positive characteristics of a thing or person; to convey the speaker's doubts as to the exact value or significance of the object of speech, e.g. Her face was not unpretty (K.Kesey).

In scientific prose litotes underlines carefulness of judgement or stresses the writer's uncertainty.