Stylistics of the English Language 1 1 Koroteeva Valentina Vladimirovna,

– Zeugma, Detachment, Emphatic Constructions
Interaction and Convergence
Syntactical “transposition”

or an adjective, applies to more than one noun, blending

together grammatically and logically different ideas:
‘[They] covered themselves with dust and glory.’
[Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer]

as God of all, A hero perish, or a sparrow fall, Atoms

or systems into ruin hurled, And now a bubble burst, and now a world.”
[Alexander Pope, Essay on Man ]

not soul mates, two separate people who happened to be

sharing a menu and a life.”
[Amy Tan, The Hundred Secret Senses]

by raising her glass, Her courage, her eyes and his hopes.”
[Flanders

and Swann, Have Some Madeira, M’Dear]

without affecting it:
‘In those days – up to the

age of 23, in actual fact – he lived with his parents on Princedale Avenue, on the outskirts of Latham (about twenty minutes on foot from where he was living now, already well into his fifties).’
[Adam Thorpe, Glow (2005)]
marked phonetically (pauses) and set off by graphical means - brackets, dashes or commas
relatively independent of the sentence they are inserted in

point, he thought, is that it’s related to pleasure which

is incoherent -- no, illogical. ’
[Adam Thorpe, Glow (2005)]


may have an evaluative meaning:
‘She was lovely: all of her – delightful.’
[Theodore Dreiser, The Financier (1912)]

it a lively and palpable colouring:

‘And sometimes with the

sensation a cat must feel when it purrs, he would become conscious that Megan's eyes -- those dew-gray eyes -- were fixed on him with a sort of lingering soft look.’
[John Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga (1922)]

is smb/smth who/that +verb…:
“It is Glenn who was responsible

for that.”

the object intensifier - it is (to) that/smth (there) that +subj+verb…:
“It is the work he did that attracted her.”

the adverbial intensifier - it is then that…/ it is by/with/through smth that…:
“It is through struggle that he achieved his goal.”

of the sentence
give an emotive charge to the utterance

who read to the boys their bed-time story.’ [D.Carter]

‘ It was

when my brother P.G.Pig was born that my mother broke her own rule.’ [Hilary Mantel, Destroyed (2003)]

‘It is the night-time that I like best. After 8:00 I know where he is, I know my father is safe.’ [Kate Pullinger, My Mother, My Father, and Me (1997)]

He easily made money and friends.

“Night came. I was a good child and an ambitious one, and I did what I was told, though when I was sleepy the prayers and the times tables got mixed up. Three sevens are twenty one. Hail, holy queen, mother of mercy. Four sevens are twenty eight. Hail our life, our sweetness and our hope. Five sevens are thirty-five. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve, mourning and weeping in this vale (юдоль, долина) of tears.” [H.Mantel, EWL, 87]

general principle

convergence is a particular stylistic technique within the branch

of decoding stylistic

a cluster of several stylistic devices in order to foreground

a particular idea or produce a desirable effect

the term was first used by Michael Riffaterre (1924-2006)

slant (oblique, sloping) –
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our

infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise”

[Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), American poet,]

the imperfect human nature desiring the truth on the one

hand and being unable to bear it on the other
Phonographical level: in order to endow the verse with philosophical-existential sense, the poetess uses unconventional punctuation – no commas or periods; capitalisation - the purpose of emphasis; t- and s-alliteration and consonance
Lexico-semantic level: the idea of completeness of feeling (all the Truth, too bright, delight, superb) is juxtaposed with the idea of lack of something (slant, infirm); the use of contextual antonyms (INFIRM delight – SUPERB surprise) to highlight the incapacity of humans to encompass the Truth’s superbness; Truth is personified to be placed on a level with humans (the Truth’s surprise);
Grammatical level: elliptical construction – to foreground the main idea (“too bright for our delight… surprise”); semi-marked structure in the parallel first line (anaphora) - tell all the truth, but tell it SLANT (an adjective is used instead of an adverb)

function in the sentence and united by one subordinating word

or clause (ex., homogeneous parts of the sentence):

“In Alaskan igloos, in Swiss chalets, and Spanish casas, in tenements (a building divided into separate flats), palaces, split level ranch houses – every place in the world where men and children come home to sleep, or eat, or brag of their exploits, or plan excursions, or be comforted, housewives are concocting that comfort.”
[Arnold 2010, p.256]

syntactical structure contradicts the grammatical meaning of the structure in

question is called syntactical transposition

[adapted from Arnold 2010]

with the connotation of surprise/doubt/disappointment rendered (common in everyday speech):
“Erica:

I can't believe it. Julianne is insecure?
Tom: Sometimes a cigar is not just a cigar.
Erica: But why? I mean, she is so competent and she's so experienced.”
[Being Erica, a Canadian series, S04E02]

forming the so called rhetorical question:
«Romanies are mothers and fathers,

just like us. Romanies want what they believe is best for their children, just like us. (…) We are all Christians. Indeed, without a permanent site, how will Romanies ever be taught the responsibilities of citizenship? How else will they be taught that law and order guarantee their children a brighter future than begging, horse-dealing and petty crime?»
[D.Mitchell, Black Swan Green, p. 289]

a stack of N-words from the dictionary, one by one.

The Metro Gnome does make speaking easy, as easy as singing, but I can hardly carry one around with me, can I?”
[D.Mitchell, Black Swan Green, p. 37]

emotional tension
elevate the utterance
put emphasis on the idea

resemble rhetorical ones, however, their function is to provoke the

reader’s thought rather than elevate the utterance:
“There is nothing more dangerous to contemplate than World War III. It is worth considering whether part of the danger may not be intrinsic in the unguarded use of learning machines. Again and again I have heard the statement that learning machines can not subject us to any new dangers, because we can turn them off when we feel like it. But can we? To turn a machine off effectively, we must be in possession of information as to whether the danger point has come.”

[N. Wiener.Cybernetics, from Arnold 2010]

with the expressivity highlighted:
“Wasn’t it wonderful!”
“Aren’t you ashamed of yourself!”

to the negative ones:
“Did you give her my regards?” I

asked him. “Yeah.” The hell he did, the bastard.
“Doesn’t it tempt you?” “Tempt me, hell!”
[J.Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, from Arnold 2010]

the negative ones:
“Catch him tripping!” - “Его на ошибке не

поймаешь.”
[from Arnold 2010, p.229]

affirmative ones:

“If this isn’t Captain Donnithorne a-coming into the yard!”
[G.Eliot,

from Arnold 2010, p.230]

interaction)
the transposition of the meaning of the syntactical structure in

a certain context (rhetorical questions)
the effect can be deduced from the broader context
graphical means are important to consider in order to understand the function of the syntactical means used

knife!
Underneath their fine incisions
Stirs the Culprit – Life!

[Emily Dickinson, American

poet, (1830-1886) ]

three of us and our new friend. We were essentially

taking the piss, except when we were serious. He was essentially serious, except when he was taking the piss. It took us a while to work this out.’
[Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending (2011)]

made the fourth. We hadn’t expected to add to our

tight number: cliques and pairings had happened long before, and we were already beginning to imagine our escape from school into life. His name was Adrian Finn, a tall, shy boy who initially kept his eyes down and his mind to himself.  For the first day or two, we took little notice of him: at our school there was no welcoming ceremony, let alone its opposite, the punitive induction. We just registered his presence and waited.”

[Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending (2011)]