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Introduction to Stylistics

Department of European,
American and Intercultural Studies
2016-2017

WEEK 3 - LECTURE 1
Dr. Margherita Dore
margherita.dore@uniroma1.it

Overview
Stylistic Devices and Figures of Speech
Alliteration
Allusion
Hyperbole
Metaphor
Metonymy

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Stylistic Devices & figures of speech
Alliteration: repetition of initial consonant sound (e.g. for
the greater good of; fantastic philosophy)

Allusion: indirect reference to a person, event or piece of


literature (e.g. the Bible, Greek mythology)

Anaphora: successive clauses or sentences start with the


same word(s) (e.g. The beginning of wisdom is silence. The
second step is listening)

Antithesis: contrasting relationship between two ideas (e.g.


That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind)

Hyperbole: deliberate exaggeration (e.g. I have told you a


thousand times)

Stylistic Devices & figures of speech

Hypophora: question raised and answered by the author/


speaker (e.g. Why is it better to love than be loved? It is
surer)

Litotes: form of understatement (e.g. That's not bad.


(instead of: That's good/great))

Onomatopoeia: word imitating a sound (e.g. The lion


roared)

Parenthesis: additional information (e.g. We (myself, wife


Ann and daughters Caroline and Joanna) boarded our boat)

Personification: attribution of human characteristics to


animals, inanimate objects or abstractions (e.g. The frogs
began their concert)
Stylistic Devices & figures of speech
Repetition: repeating words or phrases (e.g. Down,
down, down. Would the fall never come)

Rhetorical Question: question without a direct answer


(e.g. When public money brings windfalls to a few, why
should the state not take a share?)

Simile: direct comparison (with like) (e.g. The rabbit-


hole went straight on like a tunnel)

Synecdoche: using a part instead of the whole or vice


versa (e.g. Troops halt the drivers (troops = soldiers))

Understatement: weaken or soften a statement (e.g. I


think we have slightly different opinions on this topic)

REPETITION
There was an old lady of Ryde

Who ate some green apples, and died.

The apples fermented


Inside; they lamented

Made cider inside er inside.

(Willard Espy)

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Metaphor
A metaphor is a mapping between two different conceptual
domains. The different domains are known as the target (more
abstract, e.g. ARGUMENT, ANGER) and the source domain (more
concrete, e.g. WAR, A HEATED FLUID IN A CONTAINER). The target
domain is the topic or concept that you want to describe through
the metaphor while the source domain refers to the concept that
you draw upon in order to create the metaphorical construction:
ARGUMENT IS WAR:
I defended my views
He shot down all of my arguments
ANGER IS A HEATED FLUID IN A CONTAINER:
She really blew her lid
She blew her top
She just exploded
Metaphors are the basic schemes by which people
conceptualise their experience and their external world.

Metaphor
However, literature metaphors are typically more novel and
less clear. Writers consciously strive for novelty in literary
expression. Let look for instance at these lines by Sylvia
Plaths poem Metaphors (and consider that the author may
have thought to be pregnant at the time she wrote this):
[Im] An elephant, a ponderous house,
A melon strolling on two tendrils.
PREGNANT WOMEN ARE BIG
SYLVIA IS AN ELEPHANT(big animal)
SYLVIA IS A HOUSE (a big building)
SYLVIA IS A MELON (a big round fruit) standing on thin sticks
(=legs)
Example Friends, series 1
Metaphor: SEX IS A ROCK CONCERT
Monica: What you guys don't understand is, for us, kissing is as
important
as any part of it.
Joey: Yeah, right!.......Y'serious?
Phoebe: Oh, yeah!
Rachel: Everything you need to know is in that first kiss.
Monica: Absolutely.
Chandler: Yeah, I think for us, kissing is pretty much like an opening
act, y'know? I mean it's like the stand-up comedian you have to sit
through before Pink Floyd comes out.
Ross: Yeah, and-and it's not that we don't like the comedian, it's that
that... that's not why we bought the ticket.
Chandler: The problem is, though, after the concert's over, no matter how
great the show was, you girls are always looking for the comedian
again, y'know? I mean, we're in the car, we're fighting traffic... Basically
just trying to stay awake.
Rachel: Yeah, well, word of advice: Bring back the comedian.
Otherwise next time you're gonna find yourself sitting at home,
listening to that album alone.
Joey: Are we still talking about sex?

Exercise 1
Read this passage from Fiends, Series 1, and try to explain the
metaphor in it:
[Context: Ross has just been left by his lesbian wife and he is very upset.
He suggests that if there is only one woman for every man he has lost his
chance to be happy. Joey tries to cheer him up]

Joey: What are you talking about? One woman? That's like
saying there's is only one flavor of ice cream for you. Lemme
tell you something, Ross. There's [sic.] lots of flavors out
there. There's Rocky Road, and Cookie Dough, and Bing!
Cherry Vanilla, You could get 'em with Jimmies or nuts,
or whipped cream! This is the best thing that ever happened
to you! You got married, you were, like what, eight? Welcome
back to the world! Grab a spoon!
Ross: I honestly don't know if I'm hungry or horny!
Exercise 1 - key
Joeys metaphor:

WOMEN ARE ICE-CREAM FLAVOURS

Describing women in terms of food is not novel in English as


metaphors that define women as tarts or cakes are part of every
day language (cf. Goatly 1997: 155-156 on ideology and metaphor).
However, Joeys use of ice-cream flavours is an example of a
creative use of language. Joeys metaphor portrays a scenario
where human features and objects (food) are blending and clashing
in an unresolved tension that triggers humour.

(Dore 2008)

Exercise 2
Read the stanza below and explain the figures of speech in it
(along with anything else you can think of according to what
we studied so far):

He was my North, my South, my East, my West,


My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

(Funeral Blues, W. H. Auden)


Exercise 2 - Key

He was my North, my South, my East, my West,


My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The rhyme scheme is AABB (phonological parallelism).


The poet conceptualises his lover in logically paradoxical
(hyperbolic) ways. This stanza is effective in its parallel
and large use of complements and lexical links that cover
direction, days and time.

Metonymy
In Metonymy, the transfer occurs within a single conceptual
domain.
It involves the transportation between associated concepts in
the same domain.
It results in transfer between the part and the whole, a
producer and the produced, an institution and its location,
etc.
Buckingham Palace is thought to be furious

The Pentagon refused to comment on the story.

Greece beat England in todays match.


Example

Now consider this metonymy taken again from Sylvia


Plaths poem Metaphors:

O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!

This metonymy is linked to the metaphor we analysed


above. Fruit refers to nurturing, ivory to something
precious, timbers to security

Ambiguity

Ambiguity is an inherent feature of language since


words may have more than one meaning (polysemy)

Words may be used to mean something else (metaphor):


Mark is a pig (he is not literally a pig but he behaves as
such)

Words may be used to refer to a whole by using just a


part of it (metonymy):
I drank a glass of water (the contained, not the container)

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Context

Context helps us choose the correct meaning


(disambiguation process)

In Hollywood you can see many stars

With a telescope you can see many stars in the sky

The disambiguation process is also possible thanks to


your encyclopedic knowledge about the word itself that is
stored in your brain -> frames or scripts

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Intentional Ambiguity is Fun


Cauliflower Olive Sheep Eggplant Penguins

Lettuce Duck

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Intentional Ambiguity is Fun

On a Garbage Truck: Our business is picking


up.

Optometrists Sign: Theres more to a vision


examination than meets the eye.

Ad for Aspirin: We go to a lot of pains.

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Unintentional Ambiguity is Funnier

Law School Questionnaire: How many faculty


members do you have, broken down by sex?

Diner Sign: Wanted: Man to scrub floor and two


waitresses.

Dance Hall Sign: Clean and decent dancing every


night except Monday.

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Bilingual Humour (Italian)
Whats black and white and red all over?

A newspaper.

ITALIAN VERSION:
Che cosa nero, bianco e rosso ovunque?
A. LUnit, or (a Communist newspaper)
B. Una zebra con labbronzatura (a zebra with a sunburn)

NOTE: The first red retains the read association, while the
second red does not.
(Chiaro [2008]: 580)

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Bilingual Humour (Italian) - Discussion


Neither of these translations encapsulate the semantic
ambivalency attached to the words red/read. Nevertheless,
solution A does capture the read element of the original riddle
coupled with the metaphorical value of the colour term red
attached to a popular left wing newspaper LUnit.

Since this is a childrens riddle, the first answer is inappropriate


because children wouldnt know about LUnit.

Furthermore the second answer has the kind of silliness that


would be found in a childrens riddle.
(Chiaro [2008]: 580)

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Introduction to Stylistics
Department of European,
American and Intercultural Studies
2016-2017

WEEK 2 - LECTURE 2
Dr. Margherita Dore
margherita.dore@uniroma1.it

Overview
What is grammar for?
Types of Grammar
One English Grammar or Many?
Grammatical structure and function
Five functional elements
Interpreting a sentence

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Before Starting

Please watch this video by G. Lakoff who talks about how


he started to be interested in Conceptual Metaphor Theory

CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR

LOVE IS A JOURNEY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu-9rpJITY8

What is grammar for?

John is watching Amy

If we only know the meaning of each of the words


above, we cannot know that John is the person
doing the watching and Amy is the person being
watched. The fact that in English subjects typically
come before verbs, and objects typically come after
them, enables us to know that John is doing the
watching and Amy is being watched. So grammar
is used in languages to specify the relations
among the words and phrases we use.
Types of Grammar
Synthetic languages: they can specify grammatical
relations among words and phrases by adding
grammatical morphemes to words (e.g. Italian, Spanish,
etc.)
Analytic languages: they can use place ordering by
associating particular grammatical functions with particular
places in sentences, clause and phrases (e.g. Mandarin
Chinese)
English is a predominantly analytic language, doing most of its
grammar by place-ordering. However, it still uses grammatical
morphemes to do some of its grammar, e.g. '-ed' past tense
endings on verbs, plural markers on nouns and comparative (-
er') and superlative (-est) endings on short adjectives, etc.

One English Grammar or Many?

The grammar of (modern) English


varies over time (cf. Shakespeares vs.
todays) and according to places (in
Yorkshire you can still hear people use
thee and thou instead of you).

So there is not one monolithic English


grammar - no complete system we
could call THE grammar of English
Example

[Daylong this tomcat lies] Then reappear his eyes

(Ted Hughes, Easter's Tomcat)

Subjects in English clauses normally come before the


predicators they are acting as subject to. Hence, we should
normally have:

Then his eyes reappear

Comment: by using the unusual ordering, Hughes


foregrounds the clause, and also positions the subject at the
end of the clause, thus helping to 'enact' grammatically the
idea of the eyes appearing out of nowhere (effect!).

Exercise 1

Place the words in what you consider it to be


the correct order, and work out why it is that
your ordering feels more usual than the one
Hughes uses.
Then, think of the reason why Hughes uses
the ordering below:

Over the roofs go his eyes and outcry

(Ted Hughes, Easter's Tomcat)


Exercise 1 - key

His eyes and outcry go over the roofs


Comment: The noun phrase his eyes and outcry
acts as subject to the predicator 'go' and therefore
needs to be placed before that predicator. The
prepositional phrase over the roofs needs to go at
the end of the sentences (the normal position in
English sentences).

As before, Hughes achieves a foregrounding effect


by means of a deviant grammatical structure that
pushes the subject to the end of the sentence.

Grammatical structure and function

N V N
John kissed Mary
Mary kissed John

These two sentences have the same grammatical structure.


However, they mean different things because the two words (or,
more accurately, the two one-word phrases) 'John' and 'Mary'
have different grammatical functions in the sentences.

REMEMBER: the verb is the PREDICATOR!


five functional elements
Subjects (S): A Noun Phrase; usually comes first in the
sentence, before the Predicator.
Predicators (P): A Verb Phrase which expresses the
action/process or relationship.
Objects (O): A Noun Phrase; refers to the entity which is
the recipient of the action/process. Only occurs with
transitive verbs. Usually comes after the Predicator.
Complements (C): A Noun Phrase or Adjective Phrase;
normally comes after a linking Predicator; expresses
some attribute or role of the SUBJECT or the OBJECT.
Adverbials (A): An Adverbial, Prepositional or Noun
Phrase which usually specifies some condition related to
the Predicator; Its most normal position is at the end of
the sentence.

Grammatical structure and function


(AGAIN)
N V N
John kissed Mary
S P O

Mary kissed John


S P O
Exercise 2

Lets now look at these two sentences again


and try to analyse them according to the five
functional elements presented above:

Then reappear his eyes

Over the roofs go his eyes and outcry

Exercise 2 - key

Then reappear his eyes


A P S

Over the roofs go his eyes and outcry.


A P S
Interpreting a sentence

Picture the scene described by


the following sentence:

Mary kissed the boy on the nose.

Interpreting a sentence

The grammatical analysis of the sentence is


the following:

Mary kissed the boy on the nose.


S P O A
Interpreting a sentence
But the sentence is actually grammatically
ambiguous, leading to two different understandings
(or 'readings') of it. Let's make the alternative
meaning obvious by adding a bit more context:
Mary kissed the boy on the nose. But the
nose sneezed and the boy fell off.
This would also lead to a different analysis of
the sentence:
Mary kissed the boy on the nose.
S P O

Interpreting a sentence

If we wanted to avoid the ambiguity we would


have to change the structure, for example to:
Mary kissed the boy who was standing on the nose.
S P O

Now only this absurd interpretation is possible.


Note that to achieve the disambiguation we
have had to use a more complex structure.
The above sentence now has a clause
embedded inside the noun phrase, post-
modifying 'boy.
Exercise 3
Find all the examples of deviant grammar and stylistic devices you can
think of. Also reflect on the possible meaning of this poem:
love is more thicker than forget
more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fail
it is most mad and moonly
and less it shall unbe
than all the sea which only
is deeper than the sea
love is less always than to win
less never than alive
less bigger than the least begin
less littler than forgive
it is most sane and sunly
and more it cannot die
than all the sky which only
is higher than the sky
(cummings 1954 [1939]: 381)

Exercise 3 - Key

love is more thicker than forget


more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fail
it is most mad and moonly
and less it shall unbe
than all the sea which only
is deeper than the sea
love is less always than to win
less never than alive
less bigger than the least begin
less littler than forgive
it is most sane and sunly
and more it cannot die
than all the sky which only
is higher than the sky

(for a full commentary, please read Simpson, Stylistics, p.53-59)


...And to Cheer you up a bit
A language group in France was asked whether the word 'computer should be
masculine or feminine.
The men decided that 'la computer' was definitely right because:
1) No-one but their creator understands their internal logic
2) The native language they use to communicate is incomprehensible to everyone
else
3) Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for possible later
retrieval
4) As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your
pay-cheque on accessories for it.

The women, however, concluded that computers should be masculine, 'le computer',
because:
1) In order to get their attention, you have to turn them on
2) They have a lot of data, but they are still clueless
3) They are supposed to help you to solve problems, but half the time they are the
problem
4) As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you'd waited a little you could
have got a better model.

Bibliography
What we covered so far:

Leech, G. N. and Short, M. H. (2007) Style In Fiction, 2nd


edition. London: Longman (Study Ch. 1, 2, 3)
L. Wright, J. Hope, Stylistics, 1996 (Study Ch. 1, 2, 3)
C. Gregoriou, English Literary Stylistics, 2009 (Study Ch.
1, 2 and practice your understanding with Ch.3 )
Simpson, P. (2004) Stylistics: A Resource Book for
Students. London: Routledge. (Study Sections A1-A6 and
B1-B4)

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