Chapter 4 Lexical- and Syntactic-Level Stylistic Analysis
Revision of Chapter 3:
1) Elision, mispronunciation, and substandard pronunciation 2) Sound patterning 3) Onomatopoeia 4) Metrical patterning
Contents of this chapter: 1. Introduction
2. Lexical and syntactic deviation 2.1 Lexical deviation 2.2 Syntactic deviation
2.2.1 Wang Shouyuan’s discussion on syntactic deviations
2.2.2 Wang Zuoliang & Ding Wangdao’s discussion on syntactic deviations and literary
writing
3. Syntactic overregularity 3.1 Repetition 3.2 Parallelism 3.3 Antithesis
3.4 Climax and anticlimax
3.5 Palindrome, Regression and Chiasmus
4. Leech & Short’s (2001) approach to lexical- and syntactic-level stylistic analysis 5. A Model for analyzing grammatical-level stylistic features 6. Suggested areas for further study 7. Summary
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1. Introduction
According to Thornborrow & Wareing (2000: 75-76), literariness of language, which is roughly equal to “literary style”, refers to foregrounding or saliency of grammatical structures, which is realized through the deviant use of language (i.e., deviation).
In literary texts, the grammatical system of language is often exploited, experimented with, or in Mukarowsky’s words, made to “deviate” from other, more everyday, forms of language, and as a result creates interesting new patterns in form and in meaning. One way is through the use of non-conventional structures that seem to break the rules of grammar, i.e., deviant structures or marked structures.
Another way in which literary language can deviate from other kinds of language use is by disrupting the usual order of words in a sentence, in other words, by making use of marked word order, which is representative of the use of marked theme. In this sense, deviant forms are marked forms, which contribute to the formation of literariness of language.
However, the above view is incomplete. In light of Wang Shouyuan (2000: 11-22), foregrounding or saliency in literature is achieved not only through deviation but also through overregularity in grammatical structures. Thus, the stylistic analysis at the lexical and syntactic levels here is to embrace both deviation and overregularity.
2. Lexical and syntactic deviation
Leech (2001/1969) identifies eight types of linguistic deviation, namely, lexical deviation, grammatical deviation, phonological deviation, graphological deviation, semantic deviation, dialectal deviation, deviation of register, and deviation of historical period. The first four types are classified by as surface-structure deviation while semantic deviation is referred to as deep-structure deviation (Wang Shouyuan, 2000: 21).
As is known, phonological deviation has been discussed in the last chapter. In this chapter, we will focus on the first two types with the others to be dealt with in other chapters. And it should be pointed out that the term “syntactic” will be used instead of Leech’s “grammatical” as our discussion will be confined to syntax-level deviation. 2.1 Lexical deviation
Lexical deviation in literature refers almost exclusively to neologisms or the coinage of new words. In the coinage of new words, the literary writer usually extends (rather than break) three major rules of word-formation: affixation, compounding and conversion (Wang Shouyuan, 2000: 45-50). Consider the following examples:
There was a balconyful of gentlemen. (Chesterton) We left the town refreshed and rehatted. (Fotherhill)
The widow-making unchilding unfathering deeps (G. M. Hopkins, The Wreck of the Deutschland) [= the sea which deprive (wives) of husbands, (parents) of children and (children) of fathers]
It beggared all description. (Shakespeare, Anthony and Cleopatra) He words me, girls, he words me that I should not Be noble to myself. (Shakespeare, Anthony and Cleopatra)
In addition to the coinage of new words via the above mentioned three word-formation ways, there is another kind of lexical deviation, namely the deviant use of superlative forms. In literary
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writing, the writer sometimes chooses to use the -est suffix to stand for the “the most + adj.” superlative form for some stylistic or rhetorical purposes. For example, in the following work, the deviant use of the superlative form helps to form the parallel structure running through the whole sentence:
It has the poorest millionaire, the littlest great men, the haughtiest beggars, the plainest beauties, the lowest skyscrapers, the dolefulest pleasures of any town I ever saw. (O. Henry)
In the above example, the nonce word “littlest” refers to “least” while “dolefulest” means “most doleful”.
2.2 Syntactic deviation
2.2.1 Wang Shouyuan’s discussion on syntactic deviations
Syntactic deviation refers to departures from normal surface grammar, which include a number of features such as deviant phrase structures, marked clause themes, deviant use of grammatical rules, and deviant sentence length. 2.2.1.1 Deviant phrase structure
In order to achieve certain communicative effects, literary writers may use phrases that are structurally deviant. For example,
Do not go gentle into that good night. (Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night)
O What a noble mind is here o’erthrown!
The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue, sword. (W. Shakespeare, Hamlet)
2.2.1.2 Marked clause theme
The initial unit of a clause may be called its theme. The theme may be characterized as the communicative departure for the rest of the clause. In literary writing, the writer may place any element of a clause in the thematic position in order to achieve certain literary effect. The theme thus produced is unusual and is therefore called a “marked theme”. (Wang Shouyuan, 2000: 39-40) For instance,
The red-haired woman, smiling, waving to the disappearing shore. She left the maharajah; she left innumerable other lights o’ passing love in towns and cities and theatres and railway stations all over the world. But Melchior she did not leave. (A. Carter, Wise Children)
2.2.1.3 Deviant use of grammatical rules
In literary writing, the writer may choose to violate grammatical rules for some specific rhetorical or stylistic effects. Below are three types of such deliberate violations of grammatical rules.
1) The misuse of tense forms
you pays your money and you doesn’t take your choice. (e. e. cummings, why must itself up every of a park)
It is the poet’s daring violation of grammatical rule, signaling here that “you cannot get what
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you like by paying money”: The strange phenomenon is signaled by the deviant language used to describe it, which is a case of iconicity, where the ungrammatical use signals the abnormal social phenomenon.
2) The omission of articles
There head falls forward, fatigued at evening, And dreams of home,
Waving from window, spread of welcome, Kissing of wife under single sheet; But waking sees
Bird-flocks nameless to him, through doorway voices
Of new men making another love. (W. H. Auden, The Wanderer)
The elliptical use of articles here cues the homeless vagabonding life of the vagabond, implying that nothing is fixed for vagabonds.
3) The use of non-conventional sentence structures
The red-haired woman, smiling, waving to the disappearing shore. She left the maharajah; she left innumerable other lights o’ passing love in towns and cities and theatres and railway stations all over the world. But Melchior she did not leave. (A. Carter, Wise Children)
Sentences normally consist of a subject and a predicate, and the predicate normally contains a verb phrase. However, the first sentence here contains no main finite verb, and therefore should not occur as an independent unit, but looks as though it should be linked to another clause. Yet here it does occur on its own. 2.2.1.4 Deviant sentence length
In literary writing, the writer may choose to exploit super-long or super-short sentences for different stylistic purposes and effects, for example, the former for the expression of complex content while the latter for quick pace, which are cases of quantity iconicity. For the former case, consider the following three examples:
(1) Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. (Bertrand Russell, What I Have Lived for)
Of the 34 words in this sentence, the subject consists of 25, forming an unbalanced structure according to English diction in terms of a sentence, hence a sentence with too long and big a subject, or simply a marked subject or theme according to the functional perspective of sentence of functional grammar. As a matter of fact the deliberate choice of so long a subject is for the sake of producing a heavy feeling on the part of the reader in terms of the high degree of human anguish or agony.
(2) 在昨天、今天和明天之间，在父与子与孙之间，在山村二郎神担过的巨石与十七层的部长楼之间，在海云的在天之灵与拴福大嫂新买的瓷碗之间，在李谷一的“洁白羽毛”和民国十八年咸菜汤之间，在肮
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脏、混乱而又辛苦经营的交通食堂和外商承印的飞行时刻表之间，在秋文的目光、冬冬的执拗、四九年的腰鼓，七六年的旅行，在小石头、张指导员、张书记、老张头和张副部长之间，分明有一种联系，有一座充满光荣和陷阱的桥。（王蒙《蝴蝶》）
This is a sentence composed of two parts: a long adverbial consisting of seven parallel phrases and two parallel “verb + subject” structures. According to Li and Thompson (1981), Chinese is a topic- prominent language, in contrast with English that is a subject-prominent language. And in the light of Cao Fengfu (1995: 50), adverbial can act as topic. Based on such a theory, the abnormally long adverbial serves as the topic, the FIGURE, in this sentence. In other words, the semantic focus is placed on the long adverbial. Wang Yichuan (1997: 395) holds that such an excessively long topic, which is deliberately chosen and arranged by the author to take on the rich and complex main idea, helps to connect the past to the present and to delineate the complex feelings of the characters portrayed.
(3) As the Tonnerres had increased, their settlement had been added to, until the clearing at the foot of the town hill was a chaos of lean-tos, wooden packing cases, warped lumber, discarded car tyres, ramshackle chicken coops, tangled stands of barbed wire and rusty tin cans. (Margaret Laurence, The Loons)
As for the expression of quick pace via short sentences, consider the following example:
Move. Walk. Run. Hide. Steal and move on. (Toni Morrison, Beloved) (挪。走。跑。躲。偷。然后不停地前进。（潘岳 雷格译《宠儿》）)
2.2.2 Wang Zuoliang & Ding Wangdao’s discussion on syntactic deviations and literary writing 2.2.2.1 Frequently used syntactic deviations
What follows are six types of frequently used syntactic deviation:
a. Use of different auxiliary verbs for expressing different concepts of time:
He done gone. (=He has recently gone.) He bin gone. (=He has been gone a long time.)
b. Omission of link verbs:
She hungry. (=She’s hungry.) I leaving. (=I’m leaving.)
That where he is. (=That’s where he is.)
c. Use of ain’t and hain’t for a negative meaning:
You ain’t answered my question. We ain’t askin’ you to go out alone.
d. Inconsistency of person and number in the present tense:
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