Semi-marked structures

Semi-marked structures are a variety of defeated expectancy associ­ated with the deviation from the grammatical and lexical norm. It's an extreme case of defeated expectancy much stronger than low ex­pectancy encountered in a paradox or anti-climax, the unpredictable element is used contrary to the norm so it produces a very strong emphatic impact.

In the following lines by G. Baker we observe a semi-marked structure on a grammatical basis:

The stupid heart that will not learn

The everywhere of grief

The word everywhere is not a noun, but an adverb and cannot be used with an article and a preposition, besides grief is an abstract noun that cannot be used as an object with a noun denoting location. However the lines make sense for the poet and the readers who interpret them as the poetic equivalent of the author's overwhelming feeling of sadness and dejection.

Lexical deviation from the norm usually means breaking the laws of semantic compatibility and lexical valency. Arnold considers semi-marked structures as a part of tropes based on the unexpected or unpredictable relations established between objects and phenomena by the author.

If you had to predict what elements would combine well with such words and expressions as to try one's best to..., to like... or what epithets, you would choose for words like father or movement you would hardly come up with such incompatible combinations that we observe in the following sentences:

Chapter 5. Decoding Stylistics and Its Fundame ntal Notions

She... tried her best to spoil the party. (Erdrich)

Montezuma and Archuleta had recently started a mock-seriousseparatisi movement, seeking to join New Mexico. (Michener)

Would you believe it, that unnatural father wouldn't stump up. (Waugh |

He liked the ugly little college... (Waugh)

Such combination of lexical units in our normal everyday speech is rare. However in spite of their apparent incongruity semi-marked structures of both types are widely used in literary texts that are fuh of sophisticated correlations which help to read sense into most unpredictable combinations of lexical units.

This chapter contains but a brief outline of decoding stylistics and its basic principles and notions. As has been mentioned above more detailed and extensive description of decoding analysis and its cor­relation with the traditional stylistic methods and notions can be found in the works of such Russian and foreign authors as M. Rif-faterre, G. Leech, S. Levin, P. Guiraud, L. Dolezel, I. V. Arnold, Yu. M. Lotman, Yu. S. Stepanov and others.

The role and purpose of this trend in stylistics was appropriately summed up by I. V. Arnold in her book on decoding stylistics: «Modern stylistics in not so much interested in the identification of separate devices as in discovering the common mechanism of tropes and their effect.» (4, p. 155).

Now, using the achievements of the 20*^л century linguistics, scholars try to answer the question how stylistic function works rather than what effect it produces.

Practice Section Practice Section

1. What is implied in the separation of the author's stylistics from the reader's? How do the processes of encoding and decoding differ?

2. Comment on the factors that may prevent the reader from adequately decoding the author's imagery and message?

3. Speak on the origin and importance of the notion foregrounding for stylistic analysis.

4. There is a convergence of expressive means in the passage below. Try to identify separate devices that contribute to the poetic description of a beautiful young girl: types of repeti­tion, metaphor, sustained metaphor, catachresis, alliteration, inversion, coupling, semantic field:

On her face was that tender look of sleep, which a nodding flower has when it is full out. Like a mysterious early /lower, she was full out, like a snowdrop which spreads its three white wings in a flight into the waking sleep of its brief blossoming. The waking sleep of her full-opened virginity, entranced like a snowdrop in the sunshine, was upon her. (Lawrence)

The basic principle in the next passage (that describes how only one of the two relatives became the sole heir to the old man's money) is that of contrast and the method of convergence ensures the ample interpretation of the author's intention. Explain the intention and find the devices that deliver it.

From the start Philbrick was the apple of the old chap's eye, while he couldn't stick Miss Grade at any price.

Chapter 5. De coding Stylistics and Its Fundamental Notions

Philbrick could spout Shakespeare and Hamlet and things by the yard before Grade could read «The cat sat on the mat». When he was eight he had a sonnet printed in the local paper. After that Grade wasn't in it anywhere. She lived with the servants like Cinderella. (Waugh)

5. How is the effect of defeated expectancy achieved in the examples below? What are the specific devices employed in each case?

Celestine finally turned on the bench and put her hand over Dot's. —Honey, she said, would it kill you to say 'yes'?

— Yes, said Dot. (Erdrich)

St. Valentine's Day, I remembered, anniversary for lovers and massacre. (Shaw)

—It's little stinkers like you, he said, who turn decent masters savage. —Do you think that's so very complimentary?

—I think it's one of the most complimentary things I ever heard said about a master, said Beste-Chetwynde. (Waugh)

/ think that, if anything, sports are rather worse than concerts, said Mr. Prendergast. They at least happen indoors. (Waugh)

...the Indian burial mound this town is named for contain the things that each Indian used in their lives. People have found stone grinders, hunting arrows and jewelry of colored bones. So I think it's no use. Even buried, our things survive. (Erdrich)

— Would this be of any use? Asked Philbrick, producing an enormous
service revolver. Only take care, it's loaded.

Practice Section

— The very thing, said the Doctor. Only fire into the ground, mind. We must do everything we can to avoid an accident. Do you always carry that about with you? —Only when I'm wearing my diamonds, said Philbrick. (Waugh)

When we visited Athens, we saw the Apocalypse. (Maleska)

Texans, quite apart from being tall and lean, turned out to be short and stout, hospitable, stingy to a degree, generous to a fault, even-tempered, cantankerous, doleful, and happy as the day is long. (Atkinson)

6. Explain how the principle of coupling can be used in analyzing
the following passages. What types of coupling can you identify
here?

Feeding animals while men and women starve, he said bitterly. It was a topic; a topic dry, scentless and colourless as a pressed flower, a topic on which in the school debating society one had despaired of finding anything new to say. (Waugh)

You asked me what I had going this time. What I have going is wine. With the way the world's drinking these days, being in wine is like having a license to steal. (Shaw)

7. In many cases coupling relies a lot on semantic fields analysis.
Show how these principles interact in the following passage.

The truth is that motor-cars offer a very happy illustration of the metaphysical distinction between 'being' and 'becoming'. Some cars, mere vehicles, with no purpose above bare locomotion, mechanical drudges... have definite 'being' just as much as their occupants. They are bought all screwed up and numbered and painted,

Chapter 5. Decoding Stylistlcs and Its Fundamental Notions

and there they stay through various declensions of ownership, brightened now and then with a lick of paint... but still maintaining their essential identity to the scrap heap.

Not so the real cars, that become masters of men; those vital creations of metal who exist solely for their own propulsion through space, for whom their drivers are as important as the stenographer to a stockbroker. These are in perpetual flux; a vortex of combining and disintegrating units, like the confluence of traffic where many roads meet. (Waugh)

8. Workings in groups of two or three try to define the themes of the following text with a description of a thunderstorm. Let each group arrange the vocabulary of the passage into semantically related fields, for example: storm sounds, shapes, colors, supernatural forces, etc.

We... looked out the mucking hole to where a tower of lightning stood. It was a broad round shaft like a great radiant auger, boring into cloud and mud at once. Burning. Transparent. And inside this cylinder of white-purple light swam shoals of creatures we could never have imagined. Shapes filmy and iridescent and veined like dragonfly wings erranded between the earth and heavens. They were moving to a music we couldn't hear, the thunder blotting it out for us. Or maybe the cannonade of thunder was music for them, but measure that we couldn't understand.

We didn't know what they were.

They were storm angels. Or maybe they were natural creatures whose natural element was storm, as the sea is natural to the squid and shark. We couldn't make out their whole shapes. Were they mermaids or tigers? Were they clothed in shining linen or in flashing armor? We saw what we thought we saw, whatever they were, whatever they were in process of becoming.

Practice Section

This tower of energies went away then, and there was another thrust of lightning just outside the wall. It was a less impressive display, just an ordinary lightning stroke, but it lifted the three of us thrashing in midair for a long moment, then dropped us breathless and sightless on the damp ground. (Chappell)

9. Comment on the type of deviation in the following semi-marked structures.

Did you ever see a dream walking? (Cheever)

Man in the day or wind at night

Laid the crops low, broke the grape's joy. (Thomas)

/ think cards are divine, particularly the kings. Such naughty old faces! (Waugh)

The Maker's white coat and black visage had disappeared from the street doorway. Reinhart got a premonition of doom when he saw the color combination with which they had been replaced: policeman's midnight blue and Slavic-red face, but the pace helped keep his upper lip stiff. (Berger)

Ask Pamela; she's so brave and manly. (Waugh)

// was Granny whom she came to detest with all her soul... her Yvette really hated, with that pure, sheer hatred which is almost a joy. (Lawrence)

...everyone who spoke, it seemed, was but biding his time to shout the old village street refrain which had haunted him all his life, «Nigger!— Nigger!—White Nigger!» (Dunbar-Nelson)

Chapter 5. Decoding Stylistics and Its Fundamental Notions

To hear him speak French, if you didn't try to understand what he was saying, was as good as attending «Phedre»: he seemed a cloud that had divorced a textbook of geometry to marry Guillaume Apollinaire... (Jar-rell)

10. Read the story by Paul Jennings and try to apply some of the principles of decoding to find out the real meaning and the im­plications of what the author encoded. Comment on the author's use of such devices as sustained metaphor, allegory, allusions, irony and phonographical means. Can you find instances of semi-marked structures, defeated expectancy, convergence and other means of foregrounding. Speak about the theme and the message of this story.

Red-blooded ³Д rose

Thou 'It come no more Never, never, never, never, ever or, on my typewriter — Necer, neved, lever, nexelm vrevney.

The typewriter knows very well how to mix language and mathematics, the resources between A and Zand 1 and 9, in its own sly way. Mine likes to put ³/₄ instead of the letter p. How brilliantly this introduces a nuance, a frisson of chance and doubt into many words that begin so well with this confident, explosive consonant! How often is one disappointed by a watery ³/₄ ale ale! How often does some much-publicized meeting of statesmen result in the signing of something that the typists of both sides know is just а ³/₄ act! How many ³/₄ apists one knows! How many people praised for their courage are not so much plucky as just ³/₄ lucky.

Most of all, is not the most common form of social occasion to-day the cocktail ³Д arty? One always goes expecting a real party, but nine times out of ten turns out to be a ³/₄ arty; all the people there have some sort of connection with the '³/₄' arts such as advertising, films, news ³/₄ apers—although there is often a real ³/₄ ainter or two. After a few ³/₄ ink gins one of the ³/₄ ainters makes a ³/₄ ass at one of those strange silent girls, with long hair and sullen ³/₄ outing lips, that one always sees at ³/₄ arties (doubtless he thinks she will be ³/₄ liable). There may be

Practice Section

some V. I., y₄ (on my typewriter the capital ³/₄ is a '/₄) * as the chief guest—an M. ^J/₄, or a fashionable ³/₄ reacher (nothing so grand as the '/₄ rime Minister, of course. Guests like that are only at real parties, given by Top y₄ eople); but at a ³/₄ arty it is always difficult to get the interesting guest to himself, to ³/₄ in him down in an argument, because of the ³/₄ rattle going on all round.

Of course this isn't mathematical language in Dr Bronowski's sense. But you've got to admit it's figurative.

' That's mathematics for you. I have an obscure feeling it should be either ⁹/i6 or

l'/2-

Glossary for the Course of Stylistics

A - j

acoustic adj. concerned with sound

adherent adj. added shades of meaning

affinity n. similarity, inherent likeness

allegory n. a story, poem, painting, etc. in which the

characters and actions represent general truths, good and bad qualities, etc.

alliteration n. repetition of the same consonant or sound

group at the beginning of two or more words that are close to each other

allusion n. reference to some literary, historical, mythologi-

cal, biblical, etc. character or event commonly known

anadiplosis n. repetition of the last word or phrase in

one clause or poetic line at the beginning of the next

anaphora n. repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning

of successive clauses or lines of verse

anastrophe n. a term of rhetoric, which means upsetting

for effect of the normal order of a preposition before a noun or of an object after a verb, cf. inversion

Glossary for the Course of Stylistics

anticlimax n. a sudden drop from the dignified

or important in thought or expression to the commonplace or trivial, sometimes for humorous effect

antique adj. the ancient style, esp. Greek or Roman; classical

antithesis n. opposition or contrast of ideas, notions,

qualities in the parts of one sentenceor in different sentences

antonomasia n. the use of a proper name in place of a

common one or vice versa to emphasise some feature or quality

apokoinu n. a construction in which the subject of one

sentence is at the same time the subject of the second, a kind of ellipsis

aposiopesis n. a sudden breaking off in the midst of

a sentence as if from inability or unwillingness to proceed

argot n. the vocabulary peculiar to a particular class of

people, esp. that of an underworld group devised for private communication

Aristotle n. Greek philosopher, pupil of Plato (384-382

ВС)

assonance n. 1. resemblance of sounds 2. partial rhyme

created by the stressed vowel sounds

astheism n. deprecation meant as approval

asyndeton n. the omission of conjunctions

В

belles lettres n. literature or writing about literary subjects

Glossary for the Course of Stylistics
С

catachresisn. incorrect use of a word, as by misappli-

cation 01 terminology or by strained or mixed metaphor

chiasmus n. inversion of the second of two parallel

phrases or clauses

cliche n. an expression or idea that has become trite

climax n. a rhetorical series of ideas, images, etc. arranged

progressively so that the most forceful is last

colon n. in Greek prosody a section of a prosodic period,

consisting of a group from two to six feet forming a rhythmic unit with a principal accent

connotation n. idea or notion suggested by or associated

with a word, phrase, etc. in addition to its denotation

connotative adj. having connotations

convergence n. concentration of various devices and

expressive means in one place to support an important idea and ensure the delivery of the message

couplet n. two successive lines of poetry, esp. of the same

length that rhyme

coupling n. the affinity of elements that occupy a similar

position and contribute to the cohesion of the text

Glossary for the Cours e of Stylistics

D

dactyl n. a metrical foot that consists of one accented

syllable followed by two unaccented ones

Demetrius of Alexandria n. Greek orator

and philosopher (b. 350 ВС)

denotative adj. indicative of the direct

explicit meaning or reference of a word or term

detachment n. a seemingly independent part of a

sentence that carries some additional information

device n. a literary model intended to produce a particular

effect in a work of literature

Dionyslus of Halicarnassus n. Greek

rhetorician, critic and historian (1^st cent. ВС)

E

ellipsis n. all sorts of omission in a sentence

emotive adj. characterised by, expressing or producing

emotion

empathy n. ability to share in another's emotions, thoughts

or feelings

enjambment n. in prosody: the running on of a sentence

from one line to the next without a syntactical break

Glossary for the Course of Stylistics

enumeration n. a device by means of which homo-

geneous parts of a sentence are made semantically heteroge­neous

epenalepsis n. a term of rhetoric meaning repetitive

use of conjunctions in close succession, (cf. polysyndeton)

epigram n. 1. a short poem with a witty or satirical point

2. any terse, witty, pointed statement, often with a clever twist in thought.

epiphora n. repetition of words or phrases at the end of

consecutive clauses or sentences

epithet n. an adjective or descriptive phrase used to char-

acterise a person or object with the aim to give them subjective evaluation

euphonic adj. characterised by euphony

euphony n. a harmonious combination of sounds that create

a pleasing effect to the ear

evaluative adj. giving judgement about the value of

something

explicit adj. clearly stated and leaving nothing implied

F

figure of speech n. a stylistic device of whatever kind, including tropes and syntactical expressive means

Glossary for the Course of Stylistics

figures of contrast*: those based on opposition (incompatibility) of co-occurring notions

figures of co-occurrence*: devices based on interrelations of two or more units of meaning actually following one another

figures of identity*: co-occurrence of synonymous or similar notions

figures of inequality*: those based on differentiation of co-occurring notions

figures of quality*: renaming based on radical qualitative difference between notion named and notion meant

figures of quantity*: renaming based on only qualitative difference between traditional names and those actually used

figures of replacement*: tropes, 'renamings', replacing traditional names by situational ones

G

gap-sentence link seemingly incoherent connection of two sentences based on an unexpected semantic leap; the reader is supposed to grasp the implied motivation for such connection

Gorgias n. Greek philosopher (483-375 B.C.), founded

one of the first rhetoric schools

graphon n. intentional misspelling to show deviations from

received pronunciation: individual manner, mispronunciation, dialectal features, etc.

* These terms and their definitions belong to Prof. Skrebnev.

Glossary for the Course of Stylistlcs

н

Hellenistic adj. of Greek history, language and culture

after tne death of Alexander the Great (323 B.C.)

hierarchicaladj. arranged in order of rank, grade, class,

etc.

hyperbole n. exaggeration for effect not meant to be

taken literally

I

iambus n. a metrical foot, consisting of one unaccented

syllable followed by one accented

idiolect n. a particular person's use of language, individual

style of expression

imagery n. ideas presented in a poetical form; figurative

descriptions and figures of speech collectively

implicit adj. implied: suggested or to be understood though

not plainly expressed

inherent adj. existing in something or someone as a

permanent and inseparable element, quality or attribute

inversion n. a reversal of the normal order of words in a

sentence

irony n. a stylistic device in which the words express

a meaning that is often the direct opposite of the intended meaning

Glossary for the Course of Styiistics

irradiation n. the influence of a specifically coloured

word against the stylistically different tenor of the narration

J

jargon n. the language, esp. the vocabulary, peculiar to a

particular trade, profession or group

juridical adj. related to the law

L

litotes n. understatement for effect, esp. that in which an

affirmative is expressed by a negation of the contrary

M

malapropism n. ludicrous misuse of words, esp.

through confusion caused by resemblance in sound

meiosis n. expressive understatement, litotes

metaphor n. the application of a word or phrase to an

object or concept it does not literally denote, in order to suggest comparison with another object or concept

metaphor sustained/extended a chain of metaphors containing the central image and some contributory images

meter n. rhythm in verse; measured patterned arrangement

of syllables according to stress or length

metonymy n. transfer of name of one object onto another

to which it is related or of which it is a part

Glossary for the Course of Stylistlcs

mythology n. myths collectively and the beliefs that they

contain

N

normative adj. having to do with usage norms

О

onomatopoeia n. the formation of a word by imitat-

ing the natural sound; the use of words whose sounds reinforce their meaning or tone, esp. in poetry

oratorical n. characteristic of or given to oratory

oratory n. the art of an orator; skill or eloquence in public

speaking

oxymoron n. a figure of speech in which opposite or

contradictory ideas are combined

P

paradiastola n. in Greek poetic texts: the lengthening

of a syllable regularly short

parallelism n. the use of identical or similar parallel

syntactical structure in two or more sentences or their parts

paranomasia n. using words similar in sound but

different in meaning for euphonic effect

parlance n. a style or manner of speaking or writing

Glossary for the Course of Stylistics

periphrasis n. renaming of an object by a phrase that

emphasises some particular feature of the object

personage n. a character in a play or book, or in history

personification n. the attribution of personal nature

or character to inanimate objects or abstract notions

polysyndeton n. the use of a number of conjunctions

in close succession

prosody n. 1. the science or art of versification, including

the study of metrical structure, stanza form, etc. 2. the stress patterns of an utterance

proximity [pro'ksimiti] n. nearness in place, time, order, occurrence or relation

publicist ['pAbhsist] n. referring to writing and speaking on current public or political affairs

R

recur v. to happen or occur again, appear at intervals

recurrence n. the instance of recurring, return, repetition

rhetoric n. 1. the art or science of all specialized literary

uses of language in prose or verse, including the figures of speech 2. the art of using language effectively in speaking or writing 3. artificial eloquence

rhetorical | adj. using or characterised by rhetoric

rhyme n. a regular recurrence of corresponding sounds at the

ends of lines in verse

Glossary for the Course of Stylistlcs

rhythm n. 1. a regular recurrence of elements in a system

of motion: the rhythm of speech, dancing music, etc. 2. an effect of ordered movement in a work of art, literature, drama, etc. attained through patterns in the timing, spacing, repetition, accenting, etc. of the elements 3. in prosody: a metrical (feet) or rhythmical (iambus, trochee, etc.) form

s

simile n. a figure of speech in which two unlike things are

explicitly compared by the use of like, as, resemble, etc.

solemn adj. arousing feelings of awe, very impressive

sophistry n. in ancient Greece: the methods or practices

of the sophists, any group of teachers of rhetoric, politics, philosophy, some of whom were notorious for their clever specious arguments. 2. misleading but clever, plausible and subtle reasoning

stanza n. a group of lines in a repeating pattern forming a

division of a poem

suspense n. a compositional device that consists in with-

holding the most important information or idea till the end of the sentence, passage or text

syllepsis n. a term of rhetoric: the use of a word or

expression to perform two syntactic functions, cf. zeugma

synecdoche n. a figure of speech based on transfer by

contiguity in which a part is used for a whole, an individual for a class, a material for a thing or the reverse of any of these; a variety of metonymy

Glossary for the Course of Stylistics

T

tautology n. needless repetition of an idea in a different

word, phrase or sentence; redundancy; pleonasm

terminology n. the system of terms used in a specific

science, art or specialised subject

trochee . n. in prosody: a foot of two syllables, a stressed

followed by an unstressed one

transfer v. to convey, carry, remove or send from one

position, place or person to another

transfer a. the act of transferring

transference n. the act or process of transferring

Trasimachus n. Greek philosopher, together with

Gorgius created one of the first schools of rhetoric in ancient Greece (c. 4 ВС)

trope n. a figure of speech based on some kind of transfer of

denomination

V

versification n. 1. the art, practice or theory of poetic

composition 2. the form or style of a poem; metrical structure

z

zeugma n. a figure of speech in which a single word,

usually a verb or adjective, is syntactically related to two or more words, though having a different sense in relation to each

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