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Interaction of Logical and Emotive Meanings

Problems for discussion:

Interjections

The Epithet

Oxymoron

Key words:significance of emotional words and constructions, interjections, approaches in studying of interjections, primary and derivative interjections, individual epithets, transferred epithet, associated and unassociated epithets, morphological catego?ries of epithets, adjectival epithets, nature of string-epithets, reversed epithet, the linguistic nature of oxymoron, structure of oxymoron, difference between original and trite oxymorons, the stylistic function of oxymoron.

1. The emotive meaning or emotional colouring of a word plays considerable role in stylistics. The emotive meaning of a word can be clearly understood when we compare it with its neutral meaning. Interjections are words we use when we express .our feelings strongly and which may be said to exist in the language as symbols of human emotions. They express such feelings as regret, despair, sorrow, woe, surprise, astonishment etc. They are defined as expressive means of the language. Emotionally coloured features of inter?jections become of stylistic device.

Interjection is not a sentence; it is a word with strong emotive meaning. In traditional grammars the interjection is regarded as a part of speech as the noun, adjective, verb, etc. Inter?jection will always manifest a definite attitude of the spea?ker towards the problem and therefore have intonation.

Interjections can be divided .into primary and deri?vative. Primary interjections are generally devoid of any logical meaning. Derivative interjections may somewhat retain their logical meaning, though these meanings are always suppressed be emotive ones. Oh!, Ah!, Bah!, Pooh!, Gosh!, Hush!, Alas! are primary inter?jections, though some of them once had logical meaning. Derivative interjections are Heavens!, Good graci?ous!, Dear me!, God!, Come on!, Look here!, By theLord!, God knows!, Bless me! and others.

There are a number of adjectives and adverbs which can also take on the function of interjections. They are terrible!, awful!, great!, wonderful!, splendid!, fine! etc. When they are used as interjections they are not used in their logical dictionary meanings. Interjections like other words in the English vocabulary bear features of bookish, neutral and colloquial. Thus oh, ah, bah and others are neutral; alas, Lo, Hark are bookish; gosh, why, well are colloquial.

2. Epithet is a stylistic device based on the interplay of emotive and logical meanings in a word, phrase or even sentence. It shows the individual emotional attitude of the writer or the speaker towards the object mentioned. E.g.:

"She had a wide, cool, go-to-hell mouth."

From the point of view compositional structure epith?ets may be divided into simple, compound and phra?se-epithets.

Simple (one-word) epithets are ordinary adjec?tives: iron hate, silver hair.

Compound epithets are built like compound adjectives: heart-burning smile, cat-like eyes, fairy-like work.



Phrase-epithets are extremely characteristic of English language. They help not only to reveal the individual view of the author and his characters but at the same time to do it in a rather economical manner: a life-and-death struggle-; all's-well-in-the-end adventures.

Very often such constructions serve to produce a humorous effect.

Another structural variety of the epithet is the one which we call reversed epithets. The reversed epithet is composed of two nouns linked in an of-phrase:

The shadow of a smile; a devil of a job.

Sometimes three, four, five, and even more epithets are joined in chains. They are called string epithets. The structural type of string epithets is like enumeration. These attributes describe the object from different points of view:

It was an old, musty, fusty, narrow-minded, clean and bitter room.

Another distributional model is the transferred epithet. Transferred epithets are ordinary logical attri?butes generally describing the state of human being by re?ferring to an inanimated objects. E.g.: sick chamber, sle?epless pillow, merry hours.

As all the other stylistic devices, epithets gradually losing their emotive charge become hackneyed. Epithets in such combinations as bright smile, happy end, lucky chan?ce can hardly be called'original, they are fixed, or traditi?onal.

3.Oxymoron, too, is based on the interaction of logi?cal and emotive meanings. It presents a combination of two contrasting ideas. E.g.:

A pleasantly ugly face, a faithful traitor, low skyscraper, sweet sorrow, horribly beautiful.

The oxymoron reveals the contradictory sides of one and the same phenomenon. One of its components disclo?ses some objectively existing features or quality, while the other one serves to convey the author's personal attitude towards the same object.

Problematic question: May the stylistic effect of oxymoron be lost?

If the primary meaning of the qualifying word chan?ges or weakens, the stylistic effect of oxymoron is lost. This is the case with what were once oxymoronic combi?nations, as for example: awfully nice, awfully glad, terrib?ly sorry and the like, where the words "awfully", "terrib?ly" have lost their primary logical meaning and are now used with emotive meaning, only as intensifiers.

Not every combination of words should be regarded as oxymoron, because new meanings developed in new combinations do not necessarily give rise to opposition.

Rather often oxymorons are met within a simile. E.g: He was gentle as hell.

An oxymoron always exposes the author's subjective attitude. In such cases two opposite ideas very naturally repulse each other, so that a once created oxymoron is practically never repeated in different contexts and so does not become trite, always remaining a free combi?nation.

The stylistic effect is based on the fact that the denotational meaning of the attribute is not entirely lost. If it had been lost, the word combination would resemble those attributes with only emotional meaning such as: It's aw?fully nice of you, I'm terribly glad.

Oxymoron as a rule has the following structural mo?dels: adjective + noun, adverb + adjective.

Questions

l. How are the stylistic significance of emotional words and constructions defined?

2.What are interjections and what feelings do they express?

 

3.What is the way of appearing individual epithets?

2. What is transferred epithet?

3. What are associated and unassociated epithets?

4. What is the stylistic function of epithet?

7.What is the linguistic nature of oxymoron?

8.State the structure of oxymoron.

9.What is the difference between original and trite
oxymorons?

Literature:

1. Akhmanova O. S. Linguostylistics. Theory and Method. M., MGU,1972

2. Anderson W. E. The Written Word. Some uses of English. Oxford University,1971

3. Arnold I. V. The English Word. M., Higher School, 1973

4. Galperin I. R. Stylistics M., Higher school, 1977

5. Murry, J. Middleton. The problems of Style. Ldn, 1961

6. Turner G. W. Stylistics. Peguim Books,1975

7. Warner A. A. Short Guide to English Style

8. ?????????? ?.?. ?????? ???? ????????????. ?., ?қ??????, 1995

9. www.linguistlist.org

LECTURE 6


Date: 2016-06-12; view: 1893


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