Syntactic expressive means and stylistic devices of the English language

One of the most prominent places among the SDs dealing with the arrangement of members of the sentence decidedly belongs to repetition. ' We have already seen the repetition of a phoneme (as in alliteration), of a morpheme (as in rhyming, or plain morphemic repetition). As a syntactical SD repetition is recurrence of the same word, word combination, phrase for two and more times. According to the place which the repeated unit occupies in a sentence (utterance), repetition is classified into several types:

1. Consecutive contact repetition of sentence parts and separate sentences:

I am weary, weary, weary of the whole thing!

Never take the rifle again. Put it back! put it back! P ut it back!

Голова на солому хилиться, хилиться, хилиться.

Я сорочку знайду вишиванку І надіну, як хлопчик, радий. По барвінку піду на світанку

Молодий, молодий, молодіш!

2. Anaphora. The repeated word or word-combination is at the begin­ning of each consecutive syntactic structure:

Victory is what we need. Victory is what we expect.

Шастя не вміщалося у серці, щастя розривало груди!

Трохи не доспиш, трохи не доїси - то й вірші гарні пишуться.

Та й залишився в Києві. Та й закінчив школу. Ta й зробився фельдшером.

The main stylistic function of anaphora is hot so much to emphasize the repeated unit as to create the background textile nonrepeated unit, which, through its novelty, becomes foregrounded. The background-forming function of anaphora is also evident from the kind of words which are repeated anaphorically.

3. Epiphora. The repeated unit is placed at the end of each consecutive syntactic structure:

It is natural to be scared in a case like that. You are sure to be petri­fied in a case like that. Вона хотіла жити! Повинна була жити! Ох і хитрюше! Сонце хитрюще! Якби це було просто щастя, то це було б просто щастя.

The main function of epiphora is to add stress to the final words of the sentence.

4. Framing. The initial part of a language unit is repeated at the end of this unit:

Poor Mary. H ow much Jack loved her! What will he do now? I wish it hadn't happened. Poor Mary.

The function of framing is to elucidate the notion mentioned in the beginning of the sentence. Between two appearances of the repeated unit there comes the developing middle part of the sentence which explains and clarifies what was introduced in the beginning, so that by the time it is used for the second time its semantics is concretized and specified.

Боже, яка мука стояти отак на роздоріжжі й не знати, куди йти!

Що робити, що чинити?.. Боже!..

Я так і знав, що ви забудете принести книгу. Я так і знав.

5. Linking or reduplication. The final component of a syntactic struc­
ture is repeated at the beginning of a sequential syntactic structure:

It was because of that dreadful occurrence. That dreadful occur­rence had changed it all.

Семен шубовснув у воду, і вода широкими кружками побігла від нього назустріч хвилям.

Повсюди він відчував на собі тяжкий холодний погляд. Погляд у

спину.

Сонце пече! Так пече, ніби воно з квасочниками в долі.

6. Chiasmus (reversed parallel construction). In such syntactic struc­
tures there is a cross order of repeated language units:

The jail might have been the infirmary, the infirmary m ight have been

the jail.

Люди існують в часі, а час існує в людях.

Хоч ти іди в ліс по дрова, а я буду вдома, хоч я_буду вдома, а ти йди в ліс по дрова.

Не говори, що знаєш, а знай, що говориш.

Communicative functions. The device of repetition aims at emphasiz­ing a certain component of the utterance. Being repeated, a language unit obtains additional stylistic information. Consecutive contact repetition is ca­pable of rendering scores of modal meanings and human emotions: certainty, doubt, delight, impatience, worry, request, invitation, gratefulness, horror, irri­tation, disgust, hate, fury, indignation, and others.

Such varieties of repetition as anaphora, epiphora, framing, linking are text-forming devices or compositional means.

As you must have seen from the brief description, repetition is a powerful means of emphasis. Besides, repetition adds rhythm and balance to the utterance. The latter function is the major one in parallel constructions which may be viewed as a purely syntactical type of repetition for here we deal with the reiteration of the structure of several successive sentences (clauses), and not of their lexical "flesh". True enough, parallel constructions almost always include some type of lexical repetition too, and such a convergence produces a very strong effect, foregrounding at one go logical, rhythmic, emotive and expressive aspects of the utterance.

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