Hello, John, To Like, Nice, Is Anybody Home? What Do You Mean? and One Fine Morning (They All Die) (The Last Phrase From Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby")

Our practical classes in stylistics will have two main aims:

 to develop and perfect your ability to analyze and interpret any piece of art, especially
literary
 to enable you to express yourselves orally or in writing clearly, coherently and effectively

SEMINAR 1.

1. Definitions of style.
2. Foregrounding and its levels. Convergence.
3. Denotation and connotation. Types of connotation.
4. Sources of connotation.
Task 1.
Study the following definitions of style and supply your own interpretations. Single out the
key-words in each definition:
 Style is a trend.
 Style is deviations. (отклонения)
 Style is a product of individual choices and patterns of choices among linguistic
possibilities
Style is the way how
Task 2.
a) Explain how the given linguistic elements can be foregrounded on different levels of the
language:
hello, John, to like, nice, Is anybody home?; What do you mean?; And one fine morning…(they
all die) (the last phrase from Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby”)
b) Provide your own examples of foregrounding on various levels.
Phonetic level – change how the word sounds
Lexical level – say “hello” to your boss (it is unpredictable, because not polite) – I like apples. –
I appreciate them too!
Morphological level –
Graphical level – make the word italic or bold to pay attention to it.
I’m home.
What do you mean?
MY EXAMPLES
I like oranges but I hate them.
c) Enumerate the main types, mechanisms and functions of foregrounding. Can we speak
of occasional accentuation in literature (prose, poetry, drama)? In what way does
foregrounding differ from stylistic devices?
Task 3.
Study the given information and illustrate your understanding with suitable examples.
In some branches of semantics, connotation is more or less synonymous with intension.

Connotation is often contrasted with denotation, which is more or less synonymous with
extension.
In everyday usage, connotation has a different meaning. The idea is the following: every
word or phrase has two kinds of meaning: primary, literal meanings (sometimes called
denotations), and secondary meanings known as connotations. Connotations are thought to
colour what a word “really means” with emotion or value judgments.
For example, a stubborn person may be described as being either strong-willed or pig-
headed. Although these have the same literal meaning (i.e. stubborn), strong-willed connotes
admiration for someone’s convictions, while pig-headed connotes frustration in dealing with
someone.
Native speakers (of any language) intuitively make correct choices. But any language
learner should be aware of the implied connotations of his vocabulary.
Task 4.
a) Identify the type of connotation in the given examples.

Dissect; Mum; notorious; grown-up; jerk; irradiate; risky; many a scientist…; repelling; to
be rolling in money; splendid; cool; many-numerous; eke;
b) Be ready with your own examples of various connotation types.
Task 5.
1. Synonymic relations within a language
a) You are given the neutral element of a synonymic line. Reconstruct the line,
supplying the missing elements.
Meet; insane; talk; еда; food; to have a sexual intercourse; false; strong drinks; квартира;
закрыть глаза; медленно…
b) Be ready with your own examples.
2. Relations between direct and figurative meanings.
a) explain the basis of connotation..

тормозить; расколоться; откинуться; pig; dough; legless; snow; screw; grandma lane;
sharp; After wild week-ends Mondays are always a washout.
3. Relations based on formal similarity.

a) Give your associations with the words given.
Everything is sapped and sopped in Lincolnshire (Dickens); blob; Mr. Tangle (a lawer from
Dickens’ “Bleak House”); tinkle-crackle-giggle-wriggle
4. Restriction.
a) study the statements and account for their stylistic effect.
His new CD is a bomb!
He is not bald, he is hair-disadvantaged.
My mother had a propensity to spoil him. (a girl, aged 13, speaking of her little brother;
Salinger’s “For Esme, with Love and Squalor”)
Task 6.
Here is a text to ponder over (about Sally). After a careful examination make the necessary
changes in its vocabulary and structure regarding the target audience:
a) a bosom friend of yours;
b) an elderly person whom you highly respect;
c) other.
Here is an example for you:
How to fry an egg. The art of making a sunny-side-up egg

Well, you know, you take a pan, pour some Take a jet-black pan and pour some
oil on it, and put it on the stove. Then you yellowish odorous oil; put it on the blazing
take an egg and knock it over the pan. It flops brilliant bonfire of a burner. Then take an
there. Oh, and don’t forget to add some salt. oval, white snow egg and see how its chalky
Hang around for a couple of minutes and you shell crumbs under a sharp razor, but its
get it. interiors slip out to the sizzling pan.
Meanwhile take a peck of salt, which rains
down to a tiny orange sun of a yolk. In a
fleeting moment your fragrant fizzing sunny-
side-up is to ready to be served and tasted.
 Sally had missed the last bus home because she had had a lot of work to do and she
had to take a taxi. She got into the first one that came along and immediately
regretted it. The driver seemed a bit crazy. After he had gone through the third red
light at high speed she said: “You are driving a bit too fast. Please, slow down. I have
been in two car accidents already in my life”. “That’s nothing,” replied the driver. “I
have been in over a hundred!”
Reference materials:
Galperin I. R. “Stylistics” pp. 57-69
Arnold I. V. “Стилистика современного английского языка” pp. 6-50, 102-130
Kuznetz M. D., Skrebnev Y. M. “Стилистика английского языка” pp. Introduction
Collins V. H. “The Choice of Words”

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Our practical classes in stylistics will have two main aims:

Style is the way how

In some branches of semantics, connotation is more or less synonymous with intension.

a) Identify the type of connotation in the given examples.

1. Synonymic relations within a language

2. Relations between direct and figurative meanings.

a) explain the basis of connotation..

3. Relations based on formal similarity.

Here is an example for you:

How to fry an egg. The art of making a sunny-side-up egg

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