Workshop #3

Morphological Stylistics

Discussion

1. Stylistic potential of the parts of speech.

Morphological stylistic deals with morphological expressive means and stylistic devices. Words of
all parts of speech have a great stylistic potential. Being placed in an unusual syntagmatic
environment which changes their canonized grammatical characteristics and combinability, they
acquire stylistic significance.

The central notion of morphological stylistics is the notion of transposition. Transposition is a

divergence between the traditional usage of a neutral word and its situational (stylistic) usage.

The latest stylometric researches conducted on the material of different languages show that even the
frequency of words which belong to definite parts of speech or of their grammatical forms can be a
differentiating criterion that distinguishes functional styles, sublanguages and individual styles of
writers. For example, L. V. Gikov has conducted a comparative statistic research of the works by six
German writers and proved that the individual style of T. Mann is characterized by the prevailing use
of adjectives and nouns, whereas that of M. Walser displays predominantly adverbs and G. Bell’s and
M. Maron’s – pronouns. Z. Lenz gives preference to verbs. The data obtained signify that the
prevailing choice of words which belong to definite parts of speech show the author’s peculiar vision
of the world and individual manner of his writing.

Words of every part of speech are united by their semantic and grammatical properties.

1.1. The noun and its stylistic potential.

General lexico-grammatical meaning of nouns is substantivity, i. e. the ability to denote object or
abstract notions. Due to the diverse nature of substantivity, nouns are divided into proper, common,
concrete, abstract, and collective.
Cases of transposition emerge in particular when concrete nouns are used according to the rules of
proper nouns usage, or vice versa. It results in creation of stylistic devices named antonomasia or
personification. For example: “The Pacific Ocean has a cruel soul.”

Nouns may be emphasized through repetition in a syntactical construction, as in: “The law is the law
— and a bad stove is a bad stove.”
Besides general lexico-grammatical meaning, nouns possess grammatical meanings of the category
of number and case. These meanings may also be used for stylistic objectives. When the regularities
are broken for stylistic reasons, speech becomes expressive and evokes picturesque connotations.

Abstract nouns are usually used in the singular form, but when they acquire the plural form they
become expressive and more concrete. N. M. Rayevska defines the following stylistic functions of
abstract nouns in the plural form:

1) they may express intensification of meaning: “Oh! Wilfrid has emotions, hates, pities,
wants…”
2) they may express iterative (repetitive) character of action or state: “The look on her face,
such as he had never seen before, such as she had always hidden from him, was full of secret
resentments, and longings, and fears.”
When used in the plural form proper nouns acquire expressive connotation and become more
symbolic: “…from departed Forsytes, Darties, Cardigans…”

Intensification of plurality is also achieved through the use of set expressions: “A swarm of jealous
suspicions stung and stung her.”

The same function may be performed by phraseological units in pre-position to nouns of weight and
measure which lose their original meaning of quantity and become expressive synonyms to much,
many, a lot of, little, few: tons of friends, loads of friends = many friends, a lot of friends.

Nevertheless, singular forms can also acquire stylistic meaning, e.g. to hunt tiger instead of to hunt
tigers.

The metonymical use of the singular form instead of the plural form may stress the inclusion of
homogenous (people or things of the same type) in the given situation objects into one class, their
unity.

The marker of the category of possessiveness, the formant “’s” constantly widens the sphere of its
usage and its combinability. It frequently combines with inanimate and abstract nouns, e.g. kitchen’s
work, the plan’s failure. Sometimes it refers to a word group or a sentence, e. g “The blonde I had
been dancing with’s name was Bemice Crabs or Krebs.” The poetic use of the possessive case for
personification is especially expressive: “…solution of England’s troubles…”

1.2. Stylistic potential of the article.

Stylistic potential of nouns is significantly reinforced by transposition in the usage of articles as
noun-determiners. Such transpositions occur against generally accepted normative postulates.
Uncommon use of articles aims at importing specific shades of meaning into speech.

Articles may impart stylistic colouring to the noun. There are some ways of achieving stylistic effect
through the usage or non-usage of articles:

1) the use of the indefinite article with the nouns denoting unique objects (sun, moon, sky, earth)
adds emphasis and vividness to the description: “It was a benign day, with fine white fleecy
clouds suspended in a blue sky.”
2) the indefinite article with proper names might acquire evaluative meaning: “…an England
safe in the air, and free from unemployment…”
3) the indefinite article combined with names of persons may denote:
a) one representative of a family: “Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a
Northerner, a day labourer.”
b) a person unknown to the communicants: “…she surprised to recognize in him a
certain Mr Hyde…”
c) a temporary feature of character: “That day Jane was different. It was a silly Jane.”
4) the definite article used with proper names indicates a temporary or permanent quality of the
person in question: “…the athletic Tom…”

The repeated use of the definite article intensifies the expressive colouring of nouns as in: “The
waiting – the hope – the disappointment – the fear – the misery – the poverty – the blight of his
hopes…”

1.3. The stylistic power of the adjective.

General lexico-grammatical meaning of adjectives is that of qualitativeness. Qualitative adjectives
are always estimative, that is why they are used as epithets (picturesque view, tremendous
achievements) and can form degrees of comparison.

Relative adjectives normally do not form degrees of comparison and serve as logical attributes (red
colour, Italian car). However, they may be occasionally transposed into qualitative. Such
transposition imports originality and freshness: “This is the reddest colour I’ve ever seen.”

Foregrounding of adjectives may be achieved through intentional violation of rules of formation of

the degrees of comparison. In the following example, a jocular accumulation of incorrect forms of
degrees of comparison makes the story sound more childish: “…the leopard he was the ‘sclusivest-
sandiest-yellowest-brownest of them all…”

Special attention should be paid to expressive synonyms of the English adjective, which are
represented by such stylistically marked structures as kind of heart, kind-hearted, with a kind heart.

 A of N: “…the iron of nerve and leathery of conscience…”

 N₁ of N₂: “…slim slip of a girl…”
 of-pharse (prepositional attribute: “…a smile of hopeless surrender and of secret joy…”
1.4. The pronoun and its stylistic functions.
Pronouns in contrast with nouns and adjectives are rarely used stylistically, which makes their
stylistic usage especially expressive.

When objective forms of personal pronouns are used predicatively instead of nominative forms,
sentences obtain colloquial marking (it is him; it is us).
A particular stylistic effect may be created due to the usage of archaic (thee, thou, thy) or low
colloquial forms of pronouns. While archaic forms make the speech sound official or solemn, low
colloquial forms usually render some speech characteristics.

Pronouns can also undergo various contextual transpositions:

1) I → we transposition:
a) Pluralis Auctoris (“editorial we”) when the author speaks on behalf of a certain group,
party, or class: “…we never part with things you know…”
b) Pluralis Majestatis when “we” is used as a symbol of royal power: “We have thought
well of you…”
c) Pluralis Modestial when “we” is used as a means of involving the reader or listener
into the author’s thoughts. It is typical of oral and written scientific prose.
d) when “we” is employed to impart to the utterance a jocular unceremonious colouring.
2) I → one transposition gives an utterance a more general, impersonal character: “…the more
one speaks the truth, the less one expects to be believed.”
3) I → you transposition is frequently employed in reported speech and some descriptions; it
also imparts to the utterance the freshness of immediate address to the listener or reader:
“That’s one thing about painting, it keeps you young.”
4) I → he/she transposition takes place when the speaker tells his/her story as an onlooker;
addresses himself/herself as an interlocutor; overstresses his/her relevance; laughs away
what is said about him/her by the others.
 5) you → we (“clinical we”) transposition conveys a patronizing attitude of the senior/superior
to the junior/inferior. It can create a humorous effect: “…be a good girl, and we’ll have you
up in no time.”

Pronouns may acquire stylistic value if they denote persons or objects that have not been named or
introduced but are still represented as familiar. This device, in media res plunges the reader into the
midst of events, making the author’s narrative more intimate.

1.5. The verb and its stylistic properties.

The verb is semantically and stylistically the richest part of speech in the English language. The sense
independence of the verbs is so big that even a chain of verbs can create a text.

Transposition of verbs is even more varied than that of nouns. It is explained by a greater number of
grammatical categories the meanings of which may be transposed. Most expressive are tense forms,
mood forms, and voice forms. One of peculiar features of English tense forms is their polysemantism.
Deviation from the general meaning makes verbs stylistically coloured.

Commonly, the present continuous tense denotes an action which takes place at the moment of
speaking. But it may also denote a habitual action (John is constantly grumbling), an action which
occupies a long period of time (Sam is woolong Mary now), and an action of the near future (Pete is
starting a new life tomorrow).

There is a rule that verbs of sense perception and mental activity are not used in continuous tense
forms. This rule is often broken by the speaker intentionally to convey stylistic meanings of subjective
modality (I’m seeing you = I’m not blind).

One of peculiar verbal transpositions is the change of temporary planes of narration when events of
the past or future are described by present tense forms.

There are only few purely stylistically marked forms of the verb in English. To such forms the scholars
refer:

 Archaic verbal conjugated forms such as: doth – does, hath – has, (he/she) saith – says,
thou canst – you can, spoke – spake, etc.: “Onward, onward, it saith…” Archaic verb forms
are mainly employed in fiction, especially in historical novels where they create historical
atmosphere. Verbal archaisms may also add expressive connotation to the whole text
imparting it high flown tonality.
 Stylistically marked regional verbal forms of the Past Simple that emphatically mark
negation: she saw not = she didn’t see, John knew not = John didn’t know, etc.: “…waiting
for he knew what not.”
 Negative forms of the Imperative Mood without an auxiliary verb do: “Touch not the
goddess…”
 Inverted constructions of analytical verbal forms: “Marry she would!”
 Inverted constructions of modal verbal predicate: “…marry him you must!”

The stylistic functions of the verb are realized through the use of grammatical categories of aspect,
tense, voice and mood. The stylometric research conducted by R. V. Reznik proves that each
functional style and even substyle can be distinguished by the predominant usage of certain verbal
forms.
 Exercises

1. Read the following sentences and analyze stylistic functions of the underlined parts:
1. To himself, he thought, as he pushed a chair for her and asked her to sit down, she was scarcely
distinguishable from any other woman of her kind. There were thousands of Sissy Millers – drab little
women in black carrying attached cases (V. Woolf).

Used in plural form, proper nouns acquire expressive connotation and become more symbolic. In this
case, the name of Sissy Miller represents a certain type of women that probably look like her.

2. It was a cloudless afternoon in May, and the pale green of the young chestnut leaves made a pretty
contrast with the dark blue of the sky (E.M. Forster).
Instead of the regular word order, the stylistically marked structure “A of N” is used which is an
expressive synonym to the former. It contributes to the literal quality of the given peace.

3. It was a nothing that he knew too well. It was all a nothing and a man was nothing too (E.
Hemingway).

The use of an indefinite article with the words that it is usually not attributed to adds emphasis and
vividness to the description. In this case, the emphasis is put on the word nothing to indicate
absolutely nothing.

4. It must be the Hedder girl, he thought (J. Chase).

The use of a definite article with a proper name indicates the specificity of a certain character. It
presupposes that either everybody knows this girl or she is the only child in her family.

5. Lisa French was being pretty forthright (R. Pitman, McNally).

The use of stylistically marked transposition from Past Simple to the passive form of Past Continuous
indicates a temporary quality of a person.
2. Consider the following sentences and comment on the function of morphological grammatical
categories and parts of speech that create stylistic function:
1. One night I am standing in front of Mindy’s restaurant on Broadway, thinking of practically
nothing whatever, when all of a sudden I feel a very terrible pain in my left foot. (Runyon)

The use of Present Continuous creates the sense of immediacy and emphasizes this moment, making
it more vivid (foregrounding).

2. It’s good, that, to see you again, Mr. Philip, said Jim. (Caldwell)

The use of pronoun ‘that’ adds to the colloquial style of the given excerpt, making the dialog more
believable.

3. Earth colours are his theme. When he shows up at the door, we see that he’s even dressing in them.
His pants are grey. His shirt is the same colour as his skin. Flesh colour. (Erdrich)

The use of Present Continuous to describe an action in progress allows a reader to receive a more
vivid picture and emphasizes the character’s style.

4. Now, the Andorrans were a brave, warlike people centuries ago, as everybody was at one time or
another - for example, take your Assyrians, who are now extinct; or your Swedes, who fought in the
Thirty Years’ War but haven't done much since except lie in the sun and turn brown... (Berger)

The use of ‘now’ contrasts with historical narrative that follows, while ‘your’ serves to generalize the
whole group. Both cases may help to create humorous effect.

5. A gaunt and Halloweenish grin was plastered to her face. (Erdrich)

An occasional adjective further emphasizes the image, adding vividness to it.

3. Point out cases of transposition in nouns in the following examples:

1. ... for she has gone to the pictures as the guest of one Harry Gibson, Minnie Watson’s friend’s
friend. (The repetition of nouns adds certain complexity and may serve to create humorous effect)

2. After some three-quarters of an hour the door opened, and the Badger reappeared, solemnly
leading by the paw a very limp and dejected Toad. (The use of an indefinite article with adjectives
indicates a temporary quality of the character)

3. Experience taught him that a generous Helen was a dangerous Helen. (The use of an indefinite
article with an adjective and a proper noun indicates a temporary quality of the character)

4. There were a pack of the young marrieds, the success-prone ones. (The use of a verb in the role of
a noun creates the occasionalism which adds to the expressiveness of the given excerpt and may serve
for humorous effect)

5. Have you heard of a Somebody Scott Blair, by the way? (The use of an indefinite article with a
proper name indicates that the character mentioned is unknown)

6. Of the passers-by, the younger ones wore jeans and sneakers, but their elders were still huddled in
their warms. (An adjective used in the role of a noun in plural adds certain expressiveness)
7. I don’t want to get into all the whys and wherefores. (Occasional abstract nouns add complexity
to the given sentence)
8. I came out of nowhere into the here. (The adverb ‘here’ together with a definite article emphasizes
the sense of proximity)

9. Griffin, she isn’t short of a few bucks. She’s Lili – the actress, the Lili. (The use of a definite article
with a proper name indicates the uniqueness of the person in her permanent quality or state)

10. Of all forms of property their respective healths naturally concerned them most. (An uncountable
noun in plural indicates the importance of each individual’s health or may be used in the meaning of
‘disease’)

4. Point out cases of transposition in adjectives in the following examples:

1. Euro Disneyland, Europe’s biggest, drop-dead-gorgeousest theme park. (The cluster of adjectives
with an incorrect form of degrees of comparison adds humorous and exaggerated effect to the
sentence)

2. It was meatiest place Miss Matfield had ever seen. (A relative adjective in the role of a qualitative
one with an incorrect form of degree of comparison emphasizes the description of a place)

3. Now the sight of her in the miniest of miniskirts ... was too much for him. (The incorrect use of
degree of comparison indicates emphasizes the length of a skirt, making it more expressive)

4. Look here! Do you see this? Isn’t it a most wonderful and extraordinary thing that I can’t call out
at a man’s house but I find a pice of the poor surgeon’s friend on the staircase? (The use of degree
of comparison adds formality and emphasizes the description)

5. She was certainly the refinedest-looking person. (The use of an incorrect form of degree of
comparison adds humorous effect of the description of a person)

5. Point out cases of transposition in pronouns in the following examples:

1. “I wanted to move to Paris once,” Madam Dupre said. “Why didn’t you?” (The transposition from
‘I’ to ‘you’ is used to refer to anyone in a similar situation, making the experience common)

2. Madam Dupre shrugged her shoulders elegantly. “One falls into a trap. One is too comfortable.
One is afraid of adventure. Of starting anew.” She paused. “Or one doesn’t have enough talent.”
(The transposition from ‘I’ to ‘one’ makes the experience less personal, generalizes the words, and
adds formality)

3. Well, Mr. Gibson was telling me this boy of his is attending three evening classesa week. (The use
of unusual construction adds the sense of formality and sophisticated language)

4. Page smiled wearily. “Do I look that bad?” (The use of ‘that’ adds colloquial flavour to the
question)

5. Being an optimist after you’ve got everything you want doesn’t count. (The transposition from ‘I’
to ‘you’ adds the sense of generalization of an experience)

6. Point out cases of transposition in word-formation in the following examples:

1. He was... a professor at Dublin University. Whatever it was that he professed, it was something
that did not keep him for a great deal of his time at the University. (The transformation of the noun
‘professor’ into a verb adds humorous effect to the description of a person’s occupation)
2. I gather that you are underwhelmed. (Used as the antonym to ‘overwhelmed’, this word adds
expressiveness to a description of a person’s feelings)

3. The traffic in and out of the shop was heavy, but the buyers were less plentiful than the lookers and
askers. (The use of ‘lookers and askers’ contrasts with the word ‘buyers’, contributing to the
humorous effect)

4. “You needn’t ‘sir’ me quite so much,” he added. (The noun transformed into a verb is clearly used
for comical effect)

5. It was interesting for an old people watcher like me. (The phase helps to describe the ‘occupation’
of a person more precisely and briefly)

7. Give Ukrainian equivalents of the following proverbs and sayings. Pay attention to the
stylistic use of the pronouns one and you and the noun man.
1. One cannot be too careful. — Обережність не буває зайвою.

2. One can hear a pin drop. — Чутно, як муха летить.

3. You cannot judge a tree by its bark. — Не суди книгу за обкладинкою.

4. You cannot teach an old dog new tricks. — Старого пса не навчити новим трюкам.

5. A man is known by the company he keeps. — Скажи, хто твій друг, і я скажу, хто ти.

Impersonal construction in Ukrainian can make equivalents to the impersonal pronoun ‘one’. ‘You’
in generalized meaning is sometimes used in Ukrainian as well, so it’s wise to keep it as it is. ‘Man’
in this case (as not used to refer to a certain person) can be omitted in order to provide the Ukrainian
equivalent which suits the best.