EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND

STYLISTIC DEVICES
Stylistic Syntax
Subject matter of Stylistic Syntax
The subject matter of SS is the specific form of the
syntactical arrangement of the English speech, i.e.
forms that are emotionally charged and impart
additional shades of meaning to the utterance.
The specific form deviate from stylistically neutral
syntactical forms of English.
 Classification of stylistic expressive
means
The 1st group: The 2nd group: The 3d group: The 4th group:
Syntactical expressive Syntactical expressive Syntactical means Syntactical means The 5th group:
means based on an means based on the based on the unusual based on the syntactic means based
omission (absence) of one overabundance of arrangement of the interaction of sentences on the use of syntactic
or more parts of a expressions construction in the
sentence (tendency (redundancy of components of the coming in close
utterance succession meanings alien to them
towards economy). expression).

parallelism,
elliptical chiasmus,
sentence, one- syntactical gradation or
member tautology, inversion, climax, syntactic
sentence,
aposiopesis, repetition, detachment anticlimax, transposition
apocoinu polysyndeton suspense or
constructions retardation,
antithesis
 Repetition
Repetition is based on a repeated occurrence of one of the same
word or word-group.
Depending upon the place a repeated unit occupies in an
utterance there are distinguished 4 types of repetition:
Anadiplosis (catch repetition) –
Anaphora – the repetition of the Epiphora – repetition of the final the last word or phrase of the first
first word (or word-group) in word or word group: part of the utterance is repeated
several successive sentences, at the beginning of the next part,
clauses, phrases: It was better for I wake up and I’m alone and I walk thus hooking two parts together:
him, better for common sense, around valley and I’m alone, and I All was old and yellow with decay
better for … talk with people and I’m alone. and decay was the smell and being
of that room.

Framing (ring repetition) – the

repetition of the same unit at the Chain repetition based on
beginning and at the end of the anadiplosis is used several times in
utterance (paragraph): He ran one utterance: A smile would come
away from the battle, he was an into Mrs. Pickwick’s face. The smile
ordinary human being that he didn’t extended into a laugh. The laugh
want to kill and to be killed, so he into a roar. The roar became
ran away. general.
Functions of repetition

The primary function of repetition is to intensify the

utterance but like many other stylistic means
repetition is polyfunctional and the rhythmical
function mustn’t be underestimated when studying
the effects produced by repetition.
 Polysyndeton
Polysyndeton is an insistent repetition of a connective
(conjections, prepositions) between words, phrases, clauses:
The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of
the advantage over him in only one respect.
The repetition of conjunctions and other means of connection
make an utterance more rhythmical so much so that prose
may even seem like a verse.
One of the most important functions of polysyndeton is
rhythmical.
The repetition of “and” mainly creates the effect of bustling
activity. The repetition of “or” may stress equal importance
of enumerated things.
 Asyndeton
Asyndeton is a deliberate avoidance of connectives.
It’s used mostly to indicate tense, energetic, organized
activities or to show a succession of actions
immediately following each other.
Both these devices (polysyndeton and asyndeton - each
other’s opposites) are equal in expressiveness.
Both these devices are widely used in contemporary
narrative prose. In the works of some writers their
occurrence is quite prominent (as for ex. Joyce,
Hemingway).
Inversion
Inversion is a violation of the predominant “Subject –
Predicate – Object” word-order.
Inversion deals with the displacement of predicate
(complete inversion) or with the displacement of
secondary members of the sentence (partial).
If direct word-order is reestablished in questions (You
know him?), we can speak of secondary inversion.
Stylistic inversion aims at attacking logical stress or
additional emotional colouring to the surface
meaning of an utterance.
 Patterns of stylistic inversion
The following patterns of stylistic inversion are most frequently met in
both English prose and poetry.
 Pattern 1: The Object is placed at the beginning of the sentence: Talent
Mrs. Black has, capital Mr.Black has not.
 Pattern 2: The attribute is placed after the word it modifies. The model
is often used when there is more than one attribute:
Once upon a midnight dreary with figures weary and worn.
 Pattern 3: The predicative is placed before the subject:

A good generous prayer it was.

 Pattern 4: The predicative stands before the link-verb and both are
placed before the subject: Rude am I in my speech.
 Pattern 5: The adverbial modifier is placed at the beginning of the
sentence (partial): Eagerly I wished the morrow.
 Pattern 6: Both modifier and predicate stand before the subject:

In went Mr. Pickwick.

Detached construction
Detached construction (обособленная
конструкция), sometimes one of the secondary
parts of a sentence, by some specific consideration
of the writer is placed so that it seems formally
independent of the referent it logically referred to.
Such parts of structures are called detached. The
detached parts being torn away from the utterance,
they assume a greater degree of significance and
given prominence by intonation.
 Types of detached constructions
There may be various types of detached construction:
 An attribute or adverbial modifier is placed not in the
immediate proximity to its referent but in some other
position: He rose up, grinding his teeth, pale, and with fury
in his eyes.
 A nominal phrase may serve as a detached element: And
he walked slowly past again, along the river – an evening
of clear, quiet beauty, all harmony and comfort, except
within his heart. (John Galsworthy)
This stylistic device is akin to inversion because their
functions are almost the same. But detached constructions
produce a much stronger effect.
 Parallel Construction (Parallelism)
Parallelism based on a recurrence of systematically identical sequences which lexically are
completely or partially different:
She was a good servant,
She walked softly.
She was a determined woman,
She walked precisely.
Parallelism may be complete or partial.
Parallelism strongly effects a rhythmical organization of an utterance and gives it a special
emphasis.
Parallelism may be encountered not so much in the sentence as in the mega-structures (in the
supraphrasal units and paragraphs).
Parallel constructions are often bound up by repetition of words (lexical repetition) and
polysyndeton.
Parallel constructions are most frequently used in enumeration, antithesis, thus consolidating
the general effect achieved by these stylistic devices.
Chiasmus
Chiasmus (reversed parallel construction) – based on the
repetition of the syntactical pattern but it has a cross
order of words or phrases.
The word-order of one of sentences being inverted as
compared with that of the other:
 As high as we have mounted in delight
In our dejection do we sink as low. inversion
 Down dropped the breeze,
The sails dropped down.
Chiasmus can appear only when there are two successive
sentences or coordinate parts of a sentence.
This device is effective that it helps to lay stress on the
second part of the utterance, which is opposite in
structure.
Chiasmus
There are two types of chiasmus: syntactical (the previous ex)
and lexical:
In the days of old men made the manners, manners now made
men.
no inversion

His jokes were sermons and his sermons (were) jokes.

(Byron)
Such a witty arrangement of words gives an utterance
epigrammatic character.
Syntactical chiasmus is sometimes used to break the monotony
of parallel constructions.
Chiasmus always brings some new shade of meaning or
additional emphasis to the sentence.
Gradation or climax (нарастание)
It is an arrangement of a sentence or of the
homogeneous parts of one sentence which secures a
gradual increase in significance, importance or
emotional tension in the utterance:
Parlourmaid was ugly on purpose: malignantly
criminally ugly.
A gradual increase of significance may be maintained
in 3 ways: logical, emotional, quantitative.
 Gradation or climax
Logical gradation is based on the relative importance of the
component parts looked at from the point of view of the concept
embodied in them:
There are drinkers, there are drunkens, there are alcoholics but these
are only steps down the ladder.
Emotional gradation is based on the relative emotional tension
produced by words with emotive meaning:
I’ll smash you, I’ll crumble you, I’ll powder you, go to the hell, devil!
Quantitative climax is based on the evident increase in the volume of
the correspondent concepts:
They looked at hundreds of houses, they climbed thousands of stairs,
they inspected innumerable kitchens. (Maugham)
 Gradation or climax
Anticlimax
The stylistic function of gradation is to show the relative importance of
things as seen by the author especially in emotional climax or to
impress on the reader the significance of the things or to depict
phenomena dynamically.
Anticlimax is the reverse of climax. The ideas expressed may be
arranged in ascending order of significance or they may be poetic
elevated but final one which the reader expects to be the
culminating one is trifling or farcical. The sudden reversal usually
bring force a humorous or ironic effects:
In moments of utter crises my nerves act in a most extraordinary way.
I size up the situation in a flash, set my teeth, contract my mussels,
take a firm grip of myself and without a tremor always do the wrong
thing.
Suspense (retardation)
Suspense (retardation) is a deliberate delay in the completion of the
expressed thought.
A suspense is achieved by a repeated occurrence of phrases or clauses
expressing conditions, supposition, time and the like all of which hold
back the conclusion of the utterance:
Mankind, says a Chinese manuscript, which my friend M. was obliging
enough to read and explain to me, for the first seventy thousand ages
ate their meat raw.
The main purpose of this device is to prepare the reader for the only
logical conclusion of the utterance.
It must be noted that suspense due to its partly psychological nature
since it arouses a feeling of expectation is framed in one sentence
and there mustn’t be any break in the intonation pattern. Separate
sentences would violate the principle of constant emotional tension
which is characteristic if suspense.
Antithesis
Antithesis is a phrase, sentence or a group of such in
which a thing or a concept is measured against or
contrasted to its opposite: A saint abroad and a devil at
home,
too brief for our passion, too long for our peace.
Antithesis emerge as a result of opposition of two words.
Any opposition will be based on the contrasting features
of two objects.
These contrasting features are represented in pairs of
words which we call antonyms: saint-devil, hell-heaven,
etc.
Parallelism is an organizing axis of antithesis.
 Syntactic transposition
Each of the following types of sentences (declarative,
interrogative, imperative, exclamatory) may be used
in the meaning of the other type and as a result
acquire emotive and expressive connotation.
The shifts in the usage of syntactic structures resulting in
additional emotional characteristics are called
transposition in syntactical structures:
Syntactic transposition
 Rhetorical question – a statement in a form of a question.
This form makes this construction a kind of an emotional
appeal to the listener. Such structures are typical in oratory
and colloquial styles.
 Negative meaning can be rendered with the help of a
peculiar combination of lexical and syntactical means which
don’t include negative words as such: The hell he did it = He
did not do it. Negative form may be used to express an
emphatic affirmation: Oh, if it isn’t Pete!
 Subordinate clauses of comparison used absolutely may
express negation: As if I ever stopped thinking about you (=
I never stopped …).
 The imperative sentence may be used to express
disagreement, mistrust, irritation, etc.: Catch me do it again!