Гальперин И. Р. Стилистика английского языка
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С. COMPOSITIONAL PATTERNS OF SYNTACTICAL ARRANGEMENTThe structural syntactical aspect is sometimes regarded as the crucial issue in stylistic analysis, although the peculiarities of syntactical arrangement are not so conspicuous as the lexical and phraseological properties of the utterance. Syntax is figuratively called the "sinews of style". Structural syntactical stylistic devices are in special relations with the intonation involved. Prof. Peshkovsky points out that there is an interdependence between the intonation and syntactical properties of the sentence, which may be worded in the following manner: the more explicitly the structural syntactical relations are expressed, the weaker will be the intonation-pattern of the utterance (to complete disappearance) and vice-versa, the stronger the intonation, the weaker grow the evident syntactical relations (also to complete disappearance)1. This can be illustrated by means of the following two pairs of sentences: 'Only after dinner did I make up my mind to go there' and 'I made up my mind to go there only after dinner.' 'It was in Bucharest that the Xth International Congress of Linguists took place' and' The Xth International Congress of Linguists took place in Bucharest.' The second sentences in these pairs can be made emphatic only by intonation; the first sentences are made emphatic by means of the syntactical patterns: 'Only after dinner did I...' and 'It was... that...' The problem of syntactical stylistic 'devices appears to be closely linked not only with what makes an utterance more emphatic but also with the more general problem of predication. As is known, the English affirmative sentence is regarded as neutral if it maintains the regular word-order, i.e.' subject – predicate – object (or other secondary members of the sentence, as they are called). Any other order of the parts of the sentence may also carry the necessary information, but the impact on the reader will be different. Even a slight change in the word-order of a sentence or in the order of the sentences in a more complicated syntactical unit will inevitably cause a definite modification of the meaning of the whole. An almost imperceptible rhythmical design introduced into a prose sentence, or a sudden break in the sequence of the parts of the sentence, or any other change will add something to the volume of information contained in the original sentence. Unlike the syntactical expressive means of the language, which "are naturally used in discourse in a straight-forward natural manner, syntactical stylistic devices are perceived as elaborate designs aimed at having a definite impact on the reader. It will be borne in mind that any SD is meant to be understood as a device and is calculated to produce a desired stylistic effect. When viewing the stylistic functions of different syntactical designs we must first of all take into consideration two aspects:
In addition to these two large groups of EMs and SDs two other groups may be distinguished:
Stylistic InversionWоrd-order is a crucial syntactical problem in many languages. In English it has peculiarities which have been caused by the concrete and specific way the language has developed. O. Jespersen states that the English language "...has developed a tolerably fixed word-order which in the great majority of cases shows without fail what is the Subject of the sentence."1 This "tolerably fixed word-order" is Subject – Verb (Predicate) – Object (S – P – O). Further, Jespersen mentions a statistical investigation of word-order made on the basis of a series of representative 19th century writers. It was found that the order S – P – О was used in from 82 to 97 per cent of all sentences containing all three members, while the percentage for Beowulf was 16 and for King Alfred's prose 40. This predominance of S – P – О word-order makes conspicuous any change in the structure of the sentence and inevitably calls forth a modification in the intonation design. The most conspicuous places in the sentence are considered to be the first and the last: the first place because the full force of the stress can be felt at the beginning of an utterance and the last place because there is a pause after it. This traditional word-order has developed a definite intonation design. Through frequency of repetition this design has imposed itself on any sentence even though there are changes introduced in the sequence of the component parts. Hence the clash between semantically insignificant elements of the sentence when they are placed in structurally significant position and the intonation which follows the recognized pattern. Thus in Dickens' much quoted sentence: "Talent Mr. Micawber has; capital Mr. Micawber has not." The first and the last positions being prominent, the verb has and the negative not get a fuller volume of stress than they would in ordinary (uninverted) word-order. In the traditional word-order the predicates has and has not are closely attached to their objects talent and capital. English predicate-object groups are so bound together1 that when we tear the object away from its predicate, the latter remains dangling in the sentence and in this position sometimes calls forth a change in meaning of the predicate word. In the inverted word-order not only the objects talent and capital become conspicuous but also the predicates has and has not. In this example the effect of the inverted word-order is backed up by two other stylistic devices: antithesis and parallel construction. Unlike grammatical inversion, stylistic inversion does not change the structural meaning of the sentence, that is, the change in the juxtaposition of the members of the sentence does not indicate structural meaning but has some superstructural function. Stylistic inversion aims at attaching logical stress or additional emotional colouring to the surface meaning of the utterance. Therefore a specific intonation pattern is the inevitable satellite of inversion. Stylistic inversion in Modern English should not be regarded as a violation of the norms of standard English. It is only the practical realization of what is potential in the language itself. The following patterns of stylistic inversion are most frequently met in both English prose and English poetry.
"With fingers weary and worn..." (Thomas Hood) "Once upon a midnight dreary..." (E. A. Poe)
"A good generous prayer it was." (Mark Twain) or b) the predicative stands before the link-verb and both are placed before the subject, as in "Rude am I in my speech..." (Shakespeare)
"Eagerly I wished the morrow." (Poe) "My dearest daughter, at your feet I fall." (Dryden) "A tone of most extraordinary comparison Miss Tох said it in." (Dickens)
"In went Mr. Pickwick." (Dickens) "Down dropped the breeze..." (Coleridge) These five models comprise the most common and recognized models of inversion. However, in modern English and American poetry, as has been shown elsewhere, there appears a definite tendency to experiment with the word-order to the extent which may even render the message unintelligible. In this case there may be an almost unlimited number of rearrangements of the members of the sentence. Inversion as a stylistic device is always sense-motivated There is a tendency to account for inversion in poetry by rhythmical considerations. This may sometimes be true, but really talented poets will never sacrifice sense for form and in the majority of cases inversion in poetry is called forth by considerations of content rather than rhythm. Inverted word-order, or inversion, is one of the forms of what are known as emphatic constructions. What is generally called traditional word-order is nothing more than unemphatic construction. Emphatic constructions have so far been regarded as non-typical structures and therefore are considered as violations of the regular word-order in the sentence. But in practice these structures arе as common as the fixed or traditional word-order structures. Therefore inversion must be regarded as an expressive means of the language having typical structural models. |