STYLISTICS

Seminar 2
PHONO-GRAPHICAL STYLISTICS
Part I. Points for discussion
1. What is graphon? Discuss its main functions. Find examples in fiction to
illustrate the effectiveness of graphon.
Graphon – the intentional violation of the graphical shape of a word or word
combination used to reflect its authentic pronunciation.
Functions of Graphon:
 serves as a means of speech characterization supplying information about
the speakers origin, social and educational background, physical or
emotional conditions etc.;
 often creates a humorous effect;
 it helps to convey the atmosphere of authentic life communication some
amalgamated forms that are result of assimilation. (gonna, lemme)
 used in advertisement to attract the audience with an unusual form (sooper).
2. Discuss graphical means of foregrounding and specify their functions in
different types of texts.
Foregrounding- is a literary device that emphasises ideas and symbols
through the use of attention-seeking linguistic techniques which either repeat
content or break established patterns. Foregrounding is commonly seen
when linguistic features or parts of the text stand out. This happens when
something in the text is placed in the foreground. Foregrounding is a
synonym for centre, focal point, and focus.
3. What is layout? Speak on its stylistic value. Find examples in fiction and
non-fiction to prove the effectiveness of the layout design.
Layout in written text is the way something is the arrangement of visual
elements on a page. These visual elements known as layout features include
text, images, headings, spacing, and more. Layout can help determine the
main points of a text and make the text easier to read.
 4. Name and specify the main unit of the phonological level? State its
functions.
5. What is sound-instrumenting? Explain in detail the cases of
sound- instrumenting in English. Dwell upon major functions of sound
arrangement for stylistic purposes in English.

PART II.
Do the following tasks from Self-Study Guide to Stylistics of English:
навчально-методичний посібник зі стилістики англійської мови для
самостійної роботи (IV курс, факультет германської філології, Н.П.
Ізотова, І.А. Редька), 2013.
Task 1. Match the following notions with their definitions.

1) alliteration, 2) assonance, 3) graphon, 4) onomatopoeia, 5) consonance

a) Graphon- an unusual, non-standard spelling of words, showing either

deviation from Standard English or some peculiarity in pronouncing words
or phrases emphatically.
b) Alliteration- the recurrence of an initial consonant in two or more words
which either follow one another, or appear close enough to be noticeable.
c) Onomatopoeia- a combination of sounds which imitate natural sounds or
the sounds of the signified object or reaction.
d) Consonance- the recurrence or repetition of consonants especially at the
end of stressed syllables without the similar correspondence of vowels.
e) Assonance- a deliberate reiterated repetition of the same (or acoustically
similar) vowels in close succession.

Task 2. Find the examples of assonance, alliteration, and onomatopoeia in the

following selections and state their functions.

1. Betty Botter had some Butter

But she said, this batters bitter
If I bake this bitter butter
It would make my batter bitter
But if I had some bitter butter
That would make my batter better.
Assonance
Alliteration
Onomatopoeia
2. And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride. Assonance
(E. Poe)

3. The Hockey Game

30 seconds ‘til the game is over.
Tick tuck.
Tick tuck.
O no!
Slap!
Bang!
There goes the puck!
Clink!
Clank!
Clink!
Clank!
The puck is heading fro the goal!
Clang!
Clang!
Goal!
Buzz!
Buzz!
Buzz!
Game over! Lummis wins!
Rustle!
Clap!
Yackety Yak!
We won!
4. Let’s put the pot back on the bench, Bob.
5. The car screeched to a stop.
6. S.O.S. means "Save Our Souls".
7. Our granny gave us grapes yesterday.
8. The mountain made me dizzy.
9. That mud hit the wall with a splat.
10. "Night, knight!" said one knight to the other knight the other night.
11. How many mice made the cat run away?
12. You can’t say you won’t wear white clothes.

Task 4. Indicate the kind of additional information about the speaker supplied
by the graphon.
Graphon- an unusual, non-standard spelling of words, showing either deviation
from Standard English or some peculiarity in pronouncing words or phrases
emphatically.
1. It don’t take no nerve to do somepin when there ain’t nothing else you can do.
We ain’t gonna die out. People is goin’ on – changin’ a little may be – but goin’
right on. (J. Steinbeck)
2. "Well, I dunno. I’ll show you summat". (St. Barstow)
3. "The Coutn," explained the German officer, "expegs you, chentleman, at eight-
dirty." (C. Holmes)
4. He began to render his famous tune "I lost my heart in an English Garden, Just
where the roses of England grow" with much feeling:
"Ah-ee last mah-ee hawrt een ahn Angleesh gawrden, Jost whahr thah
rawzaz ahv Angland." (C. Holmes)
5. She mimicked a lisp: "I don’t weally know wevver I’m a good girl. The last
thing he’ll do whould be to be mixed with a howid woman." (J. Braine)
6. My daddy’s coming tomorrow on a nairplane. (J. D. Salinger)
7. After a hum a beautiful Negrees sings "Without a song, the dahay would
nehever end." (E. Albey)
8. They will get √ to our troubles.
(from Kukharenko V. A. Seminars in Stylistics)

Task 5. State the type and function(s) of the following stylistic means.

1. He missed our father very much. He was s-l-a-i-n in North Africa. (J. D.
Salinger)
2. "Now listen, Ed, stop that, now. I’m desperate. I am desperate, Ed, do you
hear?"
3. "We’ll teach the children to look at things. Don’t let the world pass you by, I
shall tell them. For the sun, I shall say, open your eyes for that laaaaarge." (A.
Wesker)
4. Adieu you, old man, grey. I pity you, and despise you. (Ch. Dickens)
5. WILL YOU BE QUITE! He bawled.
6. He is such a BIG boy!
7. I prayed for the gift being alone – a-l-o-n-e; which is the one New York prayer.

Task 6. State the difference between false alliteration / assonance / consonance

and true ones. Identify cases of false phonological means in the following
linguistic units:
false alliteration
1) Seminar in stylistics
2) Lecture on lexicology
3) Secretary of the State
4) Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse
5) The fair breeze blew / The white foam flew (S.T. Coleridge)
6) Coca-Cola

Task 7. Comment on the functions of sound features in the following

advertising slogans:
 1. You'll never put a better bit of butter on your knife
(Country Life Butter)
2. The daily diary of the American dream
(Wall Street Journal)
3. Stanley Steemer is your carpet cleaner
(Stanley Steemer)
4. Functional... Fashionable... Formidable...
(Fila)
5. Don’t dream it. Drive it.
(Jaguar)
6. Made to make your mouth water
(Opal Fruits)
7. Gold is cold, Diamonds are dead, a Limousine is a car, don’t pretend,
feel what’s real.
(J’adore. Dior)

Task 8. Analyze the cases of onomatopoeia in the fragments that follow. State
which of them are direct and which are indirect. Comment on the functions of
onomatopoeia.

1. And all around I’ve heard you [wind] pass

Like ladies’ skirts across the grass
(R.L. Stevenson)

2. Shell
The sea fills my ear
With sand and with fear.

You may wash out the sand

But never the sound
Of the ghost of the sea
That is haunting me.
(T. Hughes)

3. There’s the clip clop of horses on the sunhoneyed cobbles of the humming
streets, hammering of horse-shoes, gobble quack and cackle, tomtit twitter
from the bird-ounced boughs, braying of Donkey Down.
(D. Thomas)

Task 9. Trace the cases of onomatopoeia in the poetic text. Consider the
ironical implication of onomatopoeic words.
A Gentle Echo on Woman

In The Doric Manner

Shepherd. Echo, I ween, will in the woods reply,
And quaintly answer questions: shall I try?
Echo. Try.
Shepherd. What must we do our passion to express?
Echo. Press.
Shepherd. How shall I please her, who ne'er loved before?
Echo. Before.
Shepherd. What most moves women when we them address?
Echo. A dress.
Shepherd. Say, what can keep her chaste whom I adore?
Echo. A door.
Shepherd. If music softens rocks, love tunes my lyre.
Echo. Liar.
Shepherd. Then teach me, Echo, how shall I come by her?
Echo. Buy her.
Shepherd. When bought, no question I shall be her dear?
Echo. Her deer.
Shepherd. But deer have horns: how must I keep her under?
Echo. Keep her under.
Shepherd. But what can glad me when she's laid on bier?
Echo. Beer.
Shepherd. What must I do when women will be kind?
Echo. Be kind.
Shepherd. What must I do when women will be cross?
Echo. Be cross.
Shepherd. Lord, what is she that can so turn and wind?
Echo. Wind.
Shepherd. If she be wind, what stills her when she blows?
Echo. Blows.
Shepherd. But if she bang again, still should I bang her?
Echo. Bang her.
Shepherd. Is there no way to moderate her anger?
Echo. Hang her.
Shepherd. Thanks, gentle Echo! right thy answers tell
What woman is and how to guard her well.
Echo. Guard her well.
(J. Swift)

Task 10. Find five examples of alliteration in proverbs. State their functions.
For example: Time and tide wait for no man. Alliteration foregrounds the
similarity between the two notions and makes the proverb memorable.

The forbidden fruit is always the sweetest.

First things first.
Don’t make a mountain out of an anthill.
Birds of a feather flock together.
Fortune favors the bold.

Task 11. Assonance often functions as a rhythm forming device in rap music.
Find some examples to prove it.
Shine bright like a diamond
Shine bright like a diamond

Task 12. One of the cases of sound symbolism deals with the association
between sounds and colours. With regard to the theory of sound symbolism
comment on the colour palette present in the following fragment from
"Window" by S. Plath.

The window square

Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you [the baby] try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.

Task 13. Read through the poem. Consider how the layout foregrounds the
concept of the poem.
Task 14. Translate the following excerpt from "Araby" by J. Joyce preserving
sound effects that are present in the original text.

The career of our play brought us through the dark muddy lanes behind the houses,
where we ran the gauntlet of the rough tribes from the cottages, to the back doors
of the dark dripping gardens where odours arose from the ashpits, to the dark
odorous stables where a coachman smoothed and combed the horse or shook music
from the buckled harness. When we returned to the street, light from the kitchen
windows had filled the areas. If my uncle was seen turning the corner, we hid in
the shadow until we had seen him safely housed.

Кар’єра нашої п’єси привела нас через темні брудні провулки за будинками,
де ми пробігли рукавицю грубих племен від котеджів, до задніх дверей
темних мокрих садів, де запахи виходили з попільниць, до темних пахучих
стаєнь. де візник гладив і розчісував коня або струсив музику з застібнутої
упряжі. Коли ми повернулися на вулицю, світло з кухонних вікон
заповнювало всі приміщення. Якщо мого дядька бачили, коли він повертав за
ріг, ми ховалися в тіні, поки не побачили, що він безпечно розміщений.

Task 15. Read through the poem. Consider how the layout foregrounds the
concept of the poem.

r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r
who
a)s w(e loo)k
upnowgath
PPEGORHRASS
eringint(o-
aThe):l
eA
!p:
S a
(r
rIvInG .gRrEaPsPhOs)
to
rea(be)rran(com)gi(e)ngly
,grasshopper;
(e.e. cummings)

Task 16. This text is excerpted from the speech given by Martin Luther King,
Jr. at the Lincoln memorial. Find the cases of euphony and cacophony in it
and state their functions.
With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair, a stone of
hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our
nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to
work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand
up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

PART III. Get ready for the presentation on the following topics for self-
study:

 Sound symbolism
 Patterns of rhythm and rhyme in modern poetry
 Graphical foregrounding in advertising texts