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Stylistic Functions of the Article

The stylistic effect is usually observed when articles are used with the nouns normally used without them. It primarily concerns the group of proper names that normally are not preceded by any article. But there are some cases which allow the use of articles before proper names, exactly, surnames.

The use of the indefinite article can express different meanings:

-belonging to a famous family, e.g., Elisabeth was a Tudor. He is a real human being – not a Pendleton at all. (J.Webster). The connotations here may range from neutral reference to a person as a member of a family to assigning either positive or negative features characteristic of all members of this family;

-meaning “some, certain”: e.g., He was engaged to be married to a Miss Hubburd.() A Mr. Williams left a message asking you to ring him, Mrs.Grey. (M.Binchy)

-metonymic use of the indefinite article to name the works of art: e.g., He has a Levitanin his collection

-evaluating characteristic, both positive and negative, e.g., I don’t claim to be a Carreras. (The implication is that I don’t sing like he) I will never marry a Malone or a Sykes. (The implication is that of scornful attitude to the members of those families because of some negative qualities they possess).

 

The definite article before a surname may also be expressive:

-it may indicate all members of the family, e.g.,I’m driving to the Corners this morning to get some ner oil cloth for the entry…(J.Webster)

..and the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanans. (F.S.Fitzgerald)

The Hardies were rather late.

-it may point to the fact that the given person is a celebrity, e.g., Do you know my painter? Old Robinson. Yes, the Robinson.

The famous Mrs. Grey’, she said, looking Lena up and down. (M.Binchy)

-it may point to a certain characteristic feature or state of a thing or person, e.g., And she didn’t know whether the Damien downstairs was the Damien she knew once. (O’Flanagan)

He’s been serious also. Not the Stevie Sullivan she had watched for years aruon her home town. (M.Binchy)

She has been rapidely becoming the old Lena, full of plans and moving quickly. (M.Binchy)

The use of articles in enumeration may also have some evaluating character. In attributive groups with several homogeneous members the article is usually placed before the first attribute. When the article is repeated it creates a stylistic effect,

e.g., Under the low sky the grass shone with a brilliant, an almost artificial sheen. The appearance of the second article gives more prominence to the noun that follows.

 

Absence of the article before a common noun in the singular is a violation of the norm. But when used like that, it conveys a maximum degree of abstraction and generalization so the image created in such a way looses its concrete character, e.g., “Old Man on the Bridge”.

Repetition of any determiner or a conjunction may combine with a stylistic device of gradation, i.e. placing words in order of their growing importance, e.g., It began to rain slowly and heavily and drenchingly… and her thoughts went down the lane towards the fields, the hedge, the trees – oak, beech, elm. (Greene) The correlation of words with the article and without it creates a certain rhythm in the sentence: slowing down or increasing its tempo.



Alongside the stylistic use of the article mentioned above there are specific cases of the use of the article typical of separate genres, such as drama (author’s remarks) and newspaper style (headlines, advertisements).

 

Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar terminal sound combinations of words. Depending on a degree of identity of sound combinations rhymes may fall into full rhymes and incomplete rhymes.

In full rhymes the vowel sound and the consonant sounds in a stressed syllable are identical: light – right, might – bite, flown – grown, etc.

Incomplete rhymes can be divided into vowel rhymes and consonant rhymes. In vowel rhymes the corresponding words have identical vowels but differ in consonants: flesh – fresh – press, etc. Consonant rhymes show concordance in consonants and disparity in vowel: worth – forth, tale – tool – Treble – trouble; flung – long, etc.

According to the way the rhymes are perceived they fall into ear-rhymes and eye-rhymes. The rhymes mentioned above may be called ear-rhyme and may be set against eye – rhyme, where the letters but not the sounds are identical: love – prove, flood – brood, have – grave. They are results of historical changes in the vowels in certain positions.

According to the way the rhymes are arranged within the stanza, certain models of rhyming have been worked out:

Couplet – aa – the last words of two successive lines are rhymed.

Triple rhymes – aaa – the last words of three successive lines are rhymed.

Cross rhymes – abab –the last words of the 1st and the 3rd lines, the 2nd and the 4th lines are rhymed.

Framing or ring rhymes – abba – the last words of the 1st and the 4th, the 2nd and the 3rd lines are rhymed.

According to a position of rhyming sounds in words they differentiate among initial, final and internal rhymes. In internal rhymes the rhyming words are placed not at the end of the lines but within the line, e.g.,

I bring fresh showers for the thirsty flowers…(Shelly)

When you’re lying awake with a dismal headache, and repose is tabooed by anxiety,

I conceive you may use any language you choose to indulge in without impropriety. (Gilbert and Sellivan)

According to the degree of similarity of sounding, rhymes may be exact (heart – part) and appropriate which are subdivided into assonances (similar vowels but different consonants: advice – compromise ), consonances ( similar consonants but different vowels: wind –land, grey – grow),and dissonances (similar unstressed vowels and consonants but different stressed vowels: devil – evil).

Rhyme may be said to possess two seemingly contradictory functions: dissevering and consolidating. Due to its consolidating function, rhyme consolidates ideas expressed in the rhyming lines. The dissevering function of rhyme is particularly felt when it occurs unexpectedly in ordinary speech or in prose. The listener’s attention is caught by the rhyme and may lose the thread of the discourse.

 

Rhythm is a flow, movement, procedure, etc., characterized by basically regular recurrence of elements or features, as beat, or accent, in alteration with opposite or different elements or features.

Rhythm reveals itself most conspicuously in music, dance, and verse, it is primarily a periodicity, it is a deliberate arrangement of speech into regularly recurring units intended to be grasped as a definite periodicity which makes rhythm a stylistic device.

Rhythm in language demands opposition that alternate: long – short, stressed – unstressed, high – low, and other contrasting segments of speech. It should be distinguished from meter. Meter is any form of periodicity in verse, its character is determined by the character and number of syllables of which it consists. Divergences from the ideal metrical scheme is an inherent quality of rhythm in verse. The range of divergence has its limits beyond which the rhythmical pattern is destroyed. Permissible deviations from the given meter are called modifications of the rhythmical pattern.

Rhythm in verse as a stylistic device is defined as a combination of the ideal metrical scheme and the variations of it, variations which are governed by the standard.

In literature the basis for rhythm is created by syntax. Rhythm in prose is created by repetition of images, themes and other elements of the text, by the use of parallel constructions, sentences with homogeneous members, specific position of epithets. A part of poetics dealing with the rhythmic structure of literary works and its effectiveness in conveying thoughts and emotions is called prosody. Prosodic elements which are basic for rhythm are stress, pitch, tempo, pauses, etc., as well as other means like sound imitation, alliteration, repetition, parallel constructions which help to create a certain rhythmic effect.

The parameters of rhythm in verse and prose are different. In verse meter uses the syllable as a unit of measure while the unit of measure is not the syllable but a structure, a word combination, a sequence of words, i.e. phrases, clauses, sentences. So the rhyme in prose will be based not on the regular alteration of opposing units following one another or repeated after short intervals. The peculiar property of prose rhythm is that it occurs only in relatively short spans of text, and that it constantly changes its pattern and may suddenly drop to a normal, almost unapparent rhythmical design or to no rhythm at all.

Phonetic stylistic means may be split into the performer’s and author’s means. The performer’s means are those which allow of variations while decoding or transforming the written form into the oral one. These are the prosodic elements the choice and use of which depend on the performer. The phonemic aspect of the text, other phonetic and syntactical means, the choice of the meter depend on the author. The author’s phonetic means are meant to make the text more expressive and to increase its emotional influence. They depend on the sound inventory of the given language, the choice of words, their position and repetition in the text.

 


Date: 2015-12-24; view: 2734


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