Stylistics of the English Language 13 Koroteeva Valentina Vladimirovna,

Ch.Dickens
Message
The aim of the author is to set the

ironic tone of the novel through the description of the father and the son.
Explicit meaning
The father is a mature middle-aged man, and his son is an infant. They both are described as bald and red, with a lot of wrinkles, but the reasons for this are different: too much of a life burden with the former and having just come from the mother’s womb for the latter.

Ch.Dickens
Principles of Balance and Contrast
Each element of Mr.Dombey’s description is

balanced against a similar element of the description of Paul. The balance is achieved with the help of grammatical parallelism:
sentences 1 and 2– S+V+PrPh;
sentences 3 and 4 – S+V+Adj+[though+Adj+N (positive remark)] + Adj (negative remark),
sentence 5 - Adverbial of place+S+V + clause of comparison [ Obj+S+V] +WHILE + S+V+prep+Obj+which+S+V…
Also, the balance is strengthened by lexical repetition – eight and forty, bald, red, handsome well-made/undeniably fine, on the brow of Dombey/the countenance of Son, Time and Care/deceitful Time.
Against the balance of the description, we see the contrast foregrounded by means of antithesis – years/minutes, rather bald/very bald, too stern and pompous/crushed and spotty, to come down in good time/a preparation of the surface – the author may have used it to highlight the idea that they belong to two different generations, yet they share the same fortune.

Ch.Dickens
The tone of the language is poised between the comedy

and moral seriousness, and the dominant note of irony is struck in:
1) the reiterated unmodified nouns Dombey and Son – appropriate references to individuals whose lives are respectively dedicated and mortgaged to the gods of family pride and commerce (the trade house was called “Dombey and Son”);
2) the use of personifications of Time and Care, often extended by parenthesis (—remorseless twins they are for striding through their human forests, notching as they go—).

[based on Style in Fiction by G.Leech and M.Short]

Types

text (writer, movement) as distinct from an intuitive reaction to

it
[Hickey 1993]
Addressing a person: Honorable Mr.Jones, Mr.Jones, Jones, Jonsy, J-J, Nappy

and users, ex.
“He is a genuine singer – a nightingale!”
the

most important aspect of language learning (compare artificial intelligence machines and human communication)

of signs suitable for communication of any kind
Charles Morris (Signs,

Language and Behavior, 1946) – 3 aspects of semiotics:
semantics – the relations of signs to objects and phenomena of real life
syntactics – the relation of signs to one another
pragmatics – the relation of signs to their users, those who interpret them

surrounding an expression (word, sentence, speech act)
Social context –

objective social variables (class, gender, age, race, space) that are instrumental at construing/interpreting a social identity in text and conversational discourse

words put together in an appropriate way mean – referential

information
Pragmatic implications (presupposition) – information about a segment of real life – the conditions and participants of the communication, the intentions and attitudes of the speaker or writer, the relations between the addresser and the addressee, the aim of communication and the calculated effect
E.g. - “I know the feeling.”

natural language is, in part, to be able to distinguish

the propositional content of a sentence (or text, message) from its pragmatic implications.”

[Marshall and Wales, 1974, Nayer, 2002]

to Cardiff, please?”
-“Yes, of course, I do.”
-“Could you tell me

how to get there?”
-“Yes, I could.”
-“I mean, would you kindly show me the road?”
-“Yes, I would. There is no reason why I wouldn’t.”

people perform speech acts, they do things with words
“illocutionary act”:
illocution

- intention,
locution - speech,
perlocution - effect
“Are you bored?”

ending. Make your peace with that and all will be

well" - The Buddha.
Erica: All will be well.”
[Being Erica, S04E11]

of parting / to calm down
Locution: “Everything that has a

beginning, has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well" - The Buddha.
Perlocution: the addressee understands the change as a natural turn of events

synthesize ideas from:
J.Austin (the illocutionary act from “How to do

things with words”)
Ludwig Wittgenstein (the philosophy of language, mathematics)
H.P.Grice (the analysis of the nature of meaning, theory of implicature)

(request, advice, prohibition, questions)
expressives (thanking, apology, regret)
commissives (promise, oath, guarantee,

threat)
declarations (calling а truce, declaring war, appointing a person Chief of the department)

expressed proposition; represents the speaker’s belief of something that can

be evaluated to be true or false:
I suspect the patient has arthritis. (argumentative statement)
You did it the wrong way. (criticism/accusation)

do something as a response:
I need your opinion on this

urgent matter. (request)
You are not to leave this place. (prohibition/command)
I’m begging you – will you help me? (plea for help)

his/her attitudes and emotions (psychological state) to the listener:
Hi, everyone!

(greeting)
I really appreciate your suggestion. (expressing gratitude)
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some work to do. (excuse)
Let me congratulate you on your success! (congratulation)

course of action:
I will do this later. (promise)
I

solemnly declare upon my honour and conscience that I will speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. (oath)
I’m telling you one more time – if you disobey, I’ll take measures. (threat)

to changing the reality in accord with the proposition of

the declaration:
Priest: I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.(wedding)
Jury Foreman: We find the defendant guilty.(trial)
Referee: You are out! (match)

been?
Tom: Waiting. Until you were ready.
Erica: 3) I broke up

with Ethan.
Tom: I know.
Erica: Kai has gone back where he belongs. I have no job, no boyfriend…
Tom: And how does that feel?
Erica:4) It feels scary, but, strangely, okay.
Tom: And why is that?
Erica: It's like… talking to Ethan it… it made me realize how much I've changed. Everything that you've taught me, it's made me braver somehow. And fear, it no longer holds me back. It… It actually motivates me, if that makes sense.
Tom: 5) "We cannot teach people anything. We can only help them discover it within themselves" - Galileo. It's time, Erica. 6) Choose a door.
Erica: That one. Right there. [Being Erica, S2; E12]

been? - directive
3) I broke up with Ethan. -representative
4) It

feels scary, but, strangely, okay. - expressive
5) "We cannot teach people anything. We can only help them discover it within themselves" – Galileo. – representative
6) Choose a door. - directive

the hearer more than he actually says by way of

relying on their mutual shared background information, together with the general powers of rationality and inference on the part of the hearer [Searle 1976].

to stay in front of the TV?
You are standing in

front of the TV.
You’d make a better door than a window.

her doctor. Or anybody's doctor.
Nadiaah: But that's not how

your patient sees it.
Tom: I grabbed her, Nadiaah. I mean, I got so angry, I could feel it, it was just like before. I mean, I couldn't think straight, I couldn't stop myself, even though I know that… She needs someone else. Someone who's more together.
Nadiaah: Like me?
Tom: Yeah, like you.
Nadiaah: So, why does it feel like you're running away?
Tom: Well, I'm not. I've thought this through. This is the right choice. For Erica.
Nadiaah: "Fear is the mind-killer" - Frank Herbert.
Tom: Oh, don't.
Nadiaah: Yeah, it's annoying isn't it?
[Being Erica, S02E01]

allow the rules of a language to combine with the

specific elements of the context to produce a text capable of causing specific internal changes in the hearer’s state of mind or knowledge”


[Hickey 1993]