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Lecture No 4. Lexical Stylistics
Terms
Terms are mostly and predominantly used in special works dealing with the notions of some branch of science. Therefore it may be said that they belong to the style of language of science where they fulfil their basic function, that of bearing exact reference to a given concept. This function of terms does not allow the development of polysemy and seldom do the terms have synonyms. Although the synonymy is uncharacteristic for this layer of vocabulary the cases of synonymic substitution are possible and even favourable for stylistic purposes especially in Ukrainian where the bulk of this layer consists of the loan words. Some loan terms in Ukrainian have their synonyms, e.g.: алфавіт – азбука – абетка, процент – відсоток, дует – двоспів etc. There is a tendency to use the loaned term in official style and in scientific works and to use its synonym in publicistic, newspaper, colloquial, belles-lettres styles. The following extract exemplifies how the usage of terms contributes to the realistic description of the laboratory where the main heroine works:
In front of her were the instruments which she had been taught to read…there was a logarithmic amplifier, with faces like speedometers, which would give a measure – she had picked up some jargon – of the “neutron flu”.
On the bench was pinned the sheet of graph paper and it was there that she was to plot the course of the experiment. As the heavy water was poured in, the neutron flux would rise: the point on the graph would lead down the spot where the pile had started to run where the chain reaction had begun… (Ch. Snow).
The use of terms in newspaper style, in publicistic and practically in all other existing styles of language may change their function. The function of terms, if encountered in other styles, is either to indicate the technical peculiarities of the subject dealt with, or to make some reference to the occupation of a character whose language would naturally contain special words and expressions. When a term occurs in the belles-lettres style, for instance, it may simultaneously actualize its direct and figurative meaning and may acquire a definite stylistic value:
"What a fool Rawdon Crawley has been," Clump replied, "to go and marry a governess. There was something about the girl too."
"Green eyes, fair skin, pretty figure, famous frontal development" Squill remarked. (W. M. Thackeray).
The combination 'frontal development' is terminological in character (used sometimes in anatomy). But being preceded by the word 'famous' used in the sense indicated by the Shorter Oxford Dictionary as "a strong expression of approval (chiefly colloquial); excellent, capital" the whole expression assumes a specific stylistic function due to the fact that 'frontal development' is used both in its terminological aspect and in its logical meaning 'the breast of a woman'.
The following lines of Lina Kostenko can also be cited as a bright example of the artistic employment of terms, where the words that belong to the domain of mathematics embody the image of intricate and complexity of individual’s life:
Плюс мінус життя.
Таблиця розмноження.
Квадратний корінь із мрій романтика.
Два пишем, три помічаєм.
Розношена
щоденна
проста
математика (Л. Костенко).
There is an interesting process going on in the development of any language. With the increase of general education and the expansion of technique to satisfy the ever-growing needs and desires of mankind, many words that were once terms have gradually lost their quality as terms and have passed into the common literary or even neutral vocabulary. This process may be called "de-terminization". Such words as 'radio', 'television' and the like have long been in common use and their terminological character is no longer evident. It is also interesting to know that in the Ukrainian language in certain times of its development the following words as писовня (орфографія), мовниця (граматика), складання (синтаксис), голосівка (голосний звук), шелестівка (приголосний звук), речівник (іменник), злучник (сполучник), звучня (фонетика), письмівка (курсив), копальня (шахта), прогонич (болт), квас (кислота), кисняк (оксид), первень (елемент), мірило (масштаб), стіжок (конус) were terms.
Poetic words
Poetic words form a rather insignificant layer of the special literary vocabulary. They are mostly archaic or very rarely used highly literary words which aim at producing an elevated effect, like e.g. Ukrainian words уста, ланіти, перст, браття, возлюбити, недруг, супокій etc.
In the epoch of classicism, for example, there was a tendency to create special poetic style in which “simple”, “rough” and plain words of the folk language were not allowed, whereas new lexical, morphological and syntactical norms were created. The following stanzas of S. Johnson which abounds in highly elevated metaphors, abstract nouns and adjectives with the strong evaluative component can be a vivid example of this style:
Friendship, peculiar boon of heaven,
The noble mind’s delight and pride,
To men and angels only given,
To all the lower world denied,
While love, unknowen among the blest,
Parent of thousand wild desires,
The savage and the human breast
Torments alike with raging fires
……………..
Nor shall thine ardours ceased to glow,
When souls to peaceful climes remove;
What rais’d our virtue here below,
Shall aid our happiness above.
At the beginning of XIX-th century the classical canons of poetic diction were rejected by some poets-romanticists (G.G. Byron, P.B. Shelley, J. Keats) who strived to enrich the language of poetry using dialectal, archaic elements, new expressive means taken from ancient literature or built on the basis of live, colloquial forms of native language.
In modern English poetic words are not freely built in contrast to neutral, colloquial and common literary words, or terms. There is, however, one means of creating new poetic words still recognized as productive even in present-day English, viz. the use of a contracted form of a word instead of the full one, e. g. drear instead of dreary, scant – scanty. Sometimes the reverse process leads to the birth of a poeticism, e. g. vasty – vast. These two conventional devices are called forth by the requirements of the metre of the poem, to add or remove a syllable, and are generally avoided by modern English poets.
Alongside with the specific word-building models in modern English there are a certain number of words which have constant poetic connotations and are marked in the dictionaries by a special stylistic label – poet.
In order to exemplify the usage of poetic vocabulary let us consider the humoristic poem of J. Updike in which the bigotry to the classical poetic canons is derided:
POETESS
At verses she was not inept!
Her feet were neatly numbered.
She never cried, she softly wept,
She never slept, she slumbered.
She never ate and rarely dined
Her tongue found sweetmeats sour.
She never guessed but oft divined
The secrets of the flower.
A flower! Fragrant, pliant, clean,
More dear to her than crystal.
She knew what earnings dozed between
The stamen and the pistil
Dawn took her thither to the wood,
At even, home she hithered.
Ah, to the gentle Pan is god
She never died, she withered (J. Updike).
Poetic words (предковічний, славнозвісний, многостраждальний, возносити, уславляти, etc) are not infrequent in modern Ukrainian poetic discourse.
Прекрасний Києве на предковічних горах!
Многострадальному хвала тобі, хвала!
Хай на просторищах, де смерть, як ніч пройшла,
Воскресне день життя і весен неозорих! (М. Рильський)
Barbarisms and foreignisms
In the vocabulary of any language there is a considerable layer of words called barbarisms. These are words of foreign origin which have not entirely been assimilated into the language. They bear the appearance of a borrowing and are felt as something alien to the native tongue. The borrowings played an important role in the development of the literary language, and the great majority of these borrowed words have formed part of the rank and file of the vocabulary. Most of what were formerly foreign borrowings are now, from a purely stylistic position, not regarded as foreign, for example Ukrainian words факультет, стимул, процес, ситуація, флейта. But still there are some words which retain their foreign appearance to a greater or lesser degree. These words, which are called barbarisms, are, like archaisms, also considered to be on the outskirts of the literary language. Most of them have corresponding synonyms in target language; e. g. chic, bon mot, en passant, ad infinitum, alma mater, happy end, tete-a-tete and many other words and phrases.
It is very important for purely stylistic purposes to distinguish between barbarisms and foreign words proper. Barbarisms are words which have already become facts of the language, though they remain on the outskirts of the literary vocabulary. Foreign words, though used for certain stylistic purposes, do not belong to the vocabulary of the target language. They are not registered by dictionaries, except in a kind of addenda which gives the meanings of the most frequently used foreign words.
Both foreign words and barbarisms are widely used in various styles of language with various aims, which predetermine their typical functions. One of these functions is to supply local colour. They are introduced into the text in order to depict local conditions of life, facts and events, customs and habits.
Сонце щедро сипало тепло на джайляу , ласкаво усміхалося аулу... (О. Десняк).
Another function of barbarisms and foreign words is to build up the stylistic device of non-personal direct speech or represented speech. The use of a word, or a phrase, or a sentence in the reported speech of a local inhabitant helps to reproduce his actual words, manner of speech and the environment as well. Thus in James Aldridge's The Sea Eagle – "And the Cretans were very willing to feed and hide the Inglis?', – the last word is intended to reproduce the actual speech of the local people by introducing a word actually spoken by them, a word which is very easily understood because of the root.
In the belles-lettres style, however, foreignisms are sometimes used as separate units incorporated in the narrative. The author makes his character actually speak a foreign language, by putting a string of foreign words into his mouth. These phrases or whole sentences are sometimes translated by the writer in a foot-note or the foreign utterance is explained in the text. But this is seldom done.
Here are examples:
Revelation was alighting like a bird in his heart, singing: "Elle est ton rêve! Elle est ton rêve!" (J. Galsworthy).
Скресались коні. Бій кипить довкола.
Горить землі прострелений квадрат.
Впав індіанець. Раптом :«Хау кола!»
А це по-індіанськи: «Здрастуй брат» (Л. Костенко).
Хай спів твій буде запахуще миро
В пиру життя, та сам ти скромно стій
І знай одно – poeta semper tiro![1] (І. Франко).
Foreign words and phrases may sometimes be used to exalt the expression of the idea, to elevate the language. This is in some respect akin to the function of elevation mentioned in the chapter on archaisms. Words which we do not quite understand sometimes have a peculiar charm. This magic quality in words, a quality not easily grasped, has long been observed and made use of in various kinds of utterances, particularly in poetry and folklore. The tendency to create the elevated atmosphere of the text using foreign elements is characteristic for different languages. In English this function is performed by French words, in Ukrainian – by the words from Old Slavonic which still constitute the majority of religious texts. The following example of T. Shevchenko’s poem is the bright example of the above mentioned statement:
Все упованіє моє
На тебе, мій пресвітлий раю,
На милосердіє твоє, все упованіє моє
На тебе, мати, возлагаю.
Святая сило всіх святих,
Пренепорочная, благая!
Молюся, плачу і ридаю
Воззри, пречистая, на їх,
Отих окрадених, сліпих
Невільників. Подай їм силу
Твойого мученика сина,
Щоб хрест-кайдани донести
До самого, самого краю (Т. Шевченко).
In publicistic and belle-lettres styles foreignisms and barbarisms are used in their direct or indirect, figurative meaning and become the bearer of imagery information of the text.
О, як було нам весело, як весело!
Жили ми на горищах і терасах.
Усе махало крилами і веслами,
і кози скубли сіно на баркасах.
І на човнах залитими кварталами,
коли ми поверталися зі школи,
дзвеніли сміхом, сонцем і гітарами
балкончиків причалені гондоли (Л. Костенко).
Very often the mixture of native and foreign words in one and the same text (so called macaronic language) is the efficient way to create the image of the character, to describe him/her through his/her speech or to reflect the author’s attitude towards the situation described, like in the following Lina Kostenko ‘s poem where the Russian words and allusions on Pushkin’s poem To the poet are artfully interwoven into the Ukrainian text:
Мимовільний парафраз
Поет, не дорожи любовію народной,
Бо не народ дає тобі чини.
Кому потрібен дар твій благородний?
На всякій случай оду сочини.
Пиши про честь і совість, а при етом
Вмочи своє перо у каламуть.
Ну, словом, так. Поет не будь поетом.
Тобі за ето ордена дадуть .
Neologisms
N eologism is generally defined as a new word or a new meaning for an established word.
The coining of new words generally arises first of all with the need to designate new concepts resulting from the development of science and also with the need to express nuances of meaning called forth by a deeper understanding of the nature of the phenomenon in question. This first type of newly coined words, i. e. those which designate newborn concepts, may be named terminological coinages. Created in the language of science they penetrate into the sphere of publicistic, official and colloquial styles and because of their frequent usage lose their stylistic value.
New lexical units are also the result of a search for a more economical, brief and compact form of utterance which proves to be a more expressive means of communicating the idea. This type of neologisms, i. e. words coined because their creators seek expressive utterance may be named stylistic coinages. In the language of belle-lettres and publicistic style alongside with their nominative function they depict the peculiarities of the epoch, make the utterance sound solemn and official or on the contrary ironic and sarcastic.
A considerable layer of stylistic neologisms appear in the publicistic style, mainly in newspaper articles and magazines and also in the newspaper style – mostly in newspaper headlines:
Total Global Nightmare Financial Apocalypse. It's all the papers are going on about apart from the Daily Mail, which has had a small lesbian-shaped bee in its bonnet recently about Cynthia Nixon and Jodie Foster respectively. For goodness' sake! It's just lesbians. Get over it!
He will be performing his gig in real, human form on February 3 while gadgetologists translate his words and movements into a 3D computer version.
Among the examples of Ukrainian neologisms the words антипеспірант, фай, пейджинговий, інтерфейс, хакер, глобалізація, теледебати, гіпертекст, тег, etc . can be listed.
It is also worth mentioning that a lot of words which now form the neutral layer of vocabulary were once neologisms and had a definite author:
a лло – Sh. Bivor , from French “alons” which means “well”
газ – van Gelmont
мрія – Olena Pchilka
звіт – I. Verzhratskyy
чинник – I. Franko
енциклопедія – F. Rable
Separate type of neologisms, so called nonce-words, are individual coinages, i.e. words created to suit one particular occasion. Nonce-words remain on the outskirts of the literary language and not infrequently remind us of the writers who coined them. They are created to designate a subjective idea or evaluation of a thing or phenomenon and generally become moribund. They rarely pass into the language as legitimate units of the vocabulary, but they remain in the language as constant manifestations of its innate power of word-building.
Here are some of these neologisms which, by the way, have the right to be called so because they will always remain neologisms, i.e. will never lose their novelty:
Let me say in the beginning that even if I wanted to avoid Texas I could not, for I am wived in Texas, and mother-in-lawed, and uncled, and aunted, and cousined within an inch of my life (J. Steinbeck).
The past participles mother-in-lawed, uncled, aunted and cousined are coined for the occasion on the analogy of wived and can hardly be expected to be registered by English dictionaries as ordinary English words.
Here are some more examples of English and Ukrainian nonce-words, which strike us by their novelty, force and aesthetic aspect.
There is something profoundly horrifying in this immense, indefinite not-thereness of the Mexican scene" (Huxley).
That was masterly. Or should one say mistressly" (Huxley).
Surface knowingness (J. Updike).
А дівуля, дівчина, дівувальниця
До кожуха, кожушенка так і горнеться,
А бабуля, бабулиня, бабусенція
До дівчиська, дівчиниська так і тулиться –
Сиротина ж, сироту ля, сиропрашечка,
Бабумамця, бабутатко, бубусонечко... (І. Драч).
The creation of new words is the constant process in the development of any language. New, emotional and expressive neologisms are being actively created in everyday speech, but remain unfixed and disappear from the language.
Conclusion
The choice and arrangement of lexical units within the structure of a literary text is always motivated from artistic point of view – it reflects the systemic nature of the text organization. The power of text elements cohesion and interdependence on the level of vocabulary is so strong that a word introduced into this structure acquires new, (sometimes absolutely unpredictable outside the context) properties and meanings which can be adequately deciphered only proceeding from the postulate about the unity of form and content. The originality of all semantic and sensual-expressive changes of the word that is born only for this peculiar situation, only in this peculiar context shapes the character of each literary text and contributes to its artistic value.
[1] poeta semper tiro – поет завжди учень (лат.).
Lecture No 4. Lexical Stylistics
Дата: 2018-12-28, просмотров: 281.