FUNDAMENTALS

OF ENGLISH
STYLISTICS

Prof. Yehia Kamel

 Unit 1

1. Stylistics is a branch of linguistics which (investigates) the entire system of expressive resources
available in a particular language.
2. The word “stylistics” was firstly (attested) in the Oxford English Dictionary only in 1882, meaning the
science of literary style, the study of stylistic features.
3. According to Ch. Bally, the subject of stylistics is everything emotional and expressive in language
and in speech.
4. In modern linguistics, the term stylistics is employed in a variety of senses.
5. Stylistics is defined as a branch of linguistics which studies the principles and effect of choice and
usage of different language elements for rendering thought and emotion under different conditions

of communication. ()

6. The object of a science is a certain phenomenon which exists irrespective of the (cognizing) and
transforming role of human mind.
7. Language is a (hierarchy) of levels.
8. Phonetics deals with speech sounds and intonation.
9. Stylistics (pertains) to all language levels and investigates language units from a functional point of
view.

10. Stylistic phonetics studies the style-forming phonetic features of sounds. ()

11. Stylistic morphology is interested in stylistic (potential) of grammatical forms and grammatical
meaning.
12. Stylistic lexicology considers stylistic functions of lexicon, expressive, evaluative and emotive

potential of words belonging to different layers of vocabulary. ()

13. Stylistic syntax investigates the style-forming potential of particular (syntactic) constructions.
14. Stylistics deals with all expressive possibilities and expressive means of a language.
15. Stylistics considers (regularities) of language units functioning in different communicative spheres.

16. The most traditional method of stylistics is the method of semantico-stylistic analysis. ()

17. The comparative method is considered to be the (nucleus) of the stylistic analysis method.
18. The method of stylistic experiment lies in (substitution) of the writer’s words, utterances or
constructions for new ones with the stylistic aim.
19. The quantitative method consists in defining the quantitative properties of a language
phenomenon.

20. Stylistics of a national language deals with the expressive resources of a definite national language. ()
21. Stylistics is subdivided into stylistics of language and stylistics of (speech).
22. Stylistics of language deals with (inherent) stylistic properties of language.
23. Stylistics of speech analyses (acquired) stylistic properties.
24. Linguistic stylistics studies the language units from the point of view of their effectiveness in definite

types of speech. ()

25. Literary stylistics deals with artistic expressiveness.

26. Literary stylistics is not homogenous.
27. Genetic stylistics is interested in individual styles of writers focusing on their biography.

28. Decoding stylistics combines concepts of poetics, literary stylistics, semiology…etc. ()

29. The core of reader-oriented decoding stylistics is formed by special types of contextual organization
known as foregrounding.
30. Foregrounding establishes the (hierarchy) of meanings and themes in the text.

31. Foregrounding brings some to the fore and shifting others to the background. ()

32. According to immanent stylistics, a literary text can be studied as some immanent fact, without
taking into account the author’s intentions.
33. Comparative stylistics investigates national and international features in stylistic system of national

languages. ()

34. Contrastive stylistics focuses on stylistic system of (unrelated) languages.

35. Historical stylistics deals with the stylistic system of a language in a (diachronic) aspect.
36. Dialectal stylistics studies stylistic stratification and differentiation of language units within a
definite regional or social dialect.
37. Statistical stylistics analyses the (peculiarities) of language units functioning in texts.
38. Practical stylistics is a discipline which deals with (general) knowledge about language and speech
styles.
39. Feminine stylistics is concerned with the (analysis) of the way that questions of gender impact on
the production and interpretation of texts.

40. Cognitive stylistics is a relatively new, rapidly developing field of language study. ()

41. Cognitive stylistics is mainly concerned with (reading).

42. Discourse stylistics is interested in language as function of texts in context. ()

43. During the last three decades of the twentieth century, computer technology has made it possible
to conduct extensive and complex research on specific linguistic features.
44. Corpus stylistics is a new direction at the (interface).
45. Y. Skrebnev defines style as a (peculiarity).
46. Style may be also defined as a set of (characteristics) by which we distinguish one author from
another.
47. Individual style of a writer is a unique combination of language units, expressive means and stylistic

devices. ()

48. Style denotes the (collective) characteristics of writing.

49. Functional style of a language may be defined as a system of (interrelated) language means which
serves a definite aim in communication.
50. Context is a linguistic (encirclement) of a language unit.
51. Stylistic context is a stretch of a text interrupted by an unexpected element that results in a
stylistic device.
52. Expressive means of a language are those phonetic, morphological, word-building, lexical,

phraseological and syntactical forms. ()

53. I.R. Galperin conceives of stylistic device as a conscious and intensification of some typical structural

and/or semantic property of a language unit. ()

54. I. V. Arnold classifies all stylistic means into tropes, figures of speech and thematic means.
55. The stylistician defines tropes as all types of words which create (images).
56. Figures of speech include inversion and rhetorical questions, and parallel constructions.

57. Convergence is a combination of stylistic devices promoting the same idea, emotion or motive. ()

58. Imagery is a descriptive language used in literature to evoke mental pictures or sensory
experiences.
59. Carl Sandburg employs “The fog comes” to present a (kinaesthetic) image.
60. Carl Sandburg employs “The fog comes over harbor and city” to present a (visual) image.
61. Ostranenie expresses the idea that function of literary to restore (freshness) to perception.

Unit 2

62. Versification is the art of writing poetry in keeping with certain rules based on language regularities

and poets’ experience. ()

63. Rhyme is the (correspondence) of two or more words with similar-sounding final syllables placed
so as to echo one another.
64. In “The Eagle”, “He watches from his mountain walls – And like a thunderbolt he falls”, there is an
end rhyme.
65. Burn’s “That what is not sense must be nonsense”, there are three rhymes recognized as “(true)
rhymes.”
66. In W. Blake “The Angel that presided o’er my Birth”, “Little creature, formed of Joy and Mirth - Go
love without the help of anything on earth ”, there is a (masculine) rhyme.
67. In William Wordsworth “Resolution and Independence”, “We poets in our youth begin in gladness –
But thereof come in the end dependency and madness “, there is a (feminine) rhyme.
68. Rhythm in verse or prose is the movement or sense of movement communicated by the
arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables and by the duration of syllables.
69. Foot is a group of syllables forming a (metrical) unit.
70. In Thomas Gray “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”, “The curfew tolls the knell of parting day ”,
there is (Iambus).
71. Instrumentation is the art of selecting and combining sounds in order to make the utterance

expressive and melodic. ()

72. Alliteration is the repetition of the same sounds or sound clusters, usually consonants.
73. Assonance is the repetition of similar vowel sounds, usually close together.
74. Euphony is a sound pattern used to create (pleasing) and harmonious effect.
75. Cacophony is a sound pattern used to create harsh and discordant effect.
76. Euphony is achieved through the use of vowel sounds which are more easily pronounced than
consonants.
77. Onomatopoeia is the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with
it.
78. Graphon is an international (violation) of the graphical shape of a word.
79. The functions of graphon are to (individualize) the characters’ speech.
80. Graphic stylistic means are employed to bring (out) or strengthen some word, word combination or
utterance in order to make it more prominent.
81. (Hyphenation) of a word or words in a sentence suggests the rhymed or clipped manner in which it
is pronounced.
82. Doubling or multiplication is used to intensify a grapheme or render the prolonged pronunciation.

()

83. Italics, bold type, underlining and capitalization are used to add more logical or emotive significance

to a word or a sentence. ()

84. Quotation marks introduce the (direct) speech of characters.

 Unit 3

85. Nouns may be emphasized through repetition in syntactical construction.

86. “But Mrs. Hale”, said the sheriff’s wife, “the law is the law”, the noun is emphasized through
(repetition).
87. Abstract nouns are usually used in the singular form, but when they acquire the plural form they
become expressive and more concrete.
88. (Intensification) of plurality is achieved through the use of set expressions.
89. Articles may impart stylistic (coloring) to the noun.
90. The use of the indefinite articles with the nouns denoting unique objects (sun, moon, sky, earth) adds

emphasis and vividness to the description. ()

91. The definite article used with proper names indicates a temporary or permanent quality of the

person in question. ()

92. Foregrounding of adjectives may be achieved through intentional violation of rules of formation of
the degrees of comparison.
93. Pronouns in contrast with nouns and adjectives are rarely used stylistically.
94. Pronouns can undergo various contextual (transpositions).
95. The verb is semantically and stylistically the (richest) part of speech in the English language.

Unit 4

96. Semantic structure of words comprises apart from their basic conceptual meaning (denotation),

various additional co-meanings (connotation). ()

97. Connotation informs of the (participants) and conditions of communication.

98. Functional stylistic meaning indicates the sphere of usage of a linguistic unit. ()

99. The word-stock of the English language can be divided into three main layers.
100. Terms are words and word combinations which are (specifically) employed by a particular branch of
science, technology, trade or the arts.
101. Nomenclature words are very close to terms: they refer to a definite branch of human activity, mainly
(professional).
102. Archaic words are (out-dated) words which are already partly or fully out of circulation, rejected by
the living language.
103. Foreign words are characterized by (occasional) usage only, mainly in literary speech.
104. Bookish words are mostly used in (cultivated) speech.
105. The group of bookish words includes several heterogeneous subgroups.
106. Literary colloquial words are mainly used in fiction to represent the peculiarities of speech of
educated people in the course of ordinary communication or when writing letters to intimate friends.

()

107. Slang words and phrases are, as a rule, emotionally colored, often (figurative) units.
108. The most conspicuous feature of slang is its (novelty).
109. Vulgarisms are the words which are not generally used in public.

Unit 5

110. Synecdoche is a variety of metonymy in which the part stands for the whole.
111. Periphrasis is a (roundabout) way of speaking or writing.
112. Euphemism is a variety of periphrasis which is used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by
a conventionally more acceptable one.
113. Metaphor denotes expressive renaming based on likeness, similarity or affinity of some features of

two different objects. ()

114. A metaphor, according to I.R. Richards, consists of the tenor and vehicle. ()

115. Personification is based on (ascribing) some features and characteristics of a person to lifeless
objects.
116. Allegory is a variety of metaphor and means expressing abstract ideas through concrete pictures.
117. Allusion is an (implied) or indirect reference to a person, event or thing.
118. Epithet is an (attributive) word, phrase or even sentence.

119. Irony refers to a contrast or discrepancy between appearance and reality. ()

Unit 6

120. Simile is an (explicit) statement of partial identity of two objects belongings to different semantic
spheres.
121. Figures of inequality are based on the relations between meanings of words and word-combinations

which differ in their emotive or logical importance. ()

122. Climax or gradation is a structure in which every (successive) word, phrase, or sentence is
emotionally stronger or logically more important than the preceding one.
123. Anticlimax is defined as a structure in which every successive word, phrase, or sentence is

emotionally or logically less strong than the preceding one. ()

124. Pun is a (play) on words based on homonymous and polysemantic words to create a sense of
surprise.
125. Zeugma is a (simultaneous) realization within the same short context of two meanings of a
polysemantic unit.
126. Zeugma is mainly a means of creating a humorous effect.

127. Antithesis is the expression of opposing or contrasting ideas laid out in a parallel structure. ()

128. Oxymoron is a combination of (opposite) meanings.

Unit 7

129. Stylistic syntax is aimed at finding out what expressive value a syntactical unit possesses.
130. Ellipsis is the (absence) of one or both principal parts in a syntactical structure.
131. Nominative sentences are one-member sentences with a noun, a prepositional noun-phrase, or an

adverb. ()

132. Incomplete sentences are characterized by the (absence) of auxiliary elements of the sentence.
133. Aposiopesis usually indicates speechless rage or (exasperation).
134. Aposiopesis is mainly used in the dialogue or in other forms of narrative imitating spontaneous oral
speech.
135. Repetition is a (reiteration) of the same word or phrase to lay an emphatic stress on certain parts of
the sentence.
136. Anaphora is the beginning of two or more successive sentences (clauses) is repeated. ()
137. In epiphora: (the end) of successive sentences is repeated.
138. Enumeration is a repetition of (homogeneous) parts of the sentence.
139. Parenthesis is a word, phrase or clause put into a sentence which is grammatically complete without

the insertion. ()

140. Inversion is the syntactic (reversal) of the normal order of the words and phrases in a sentence.

141. Parallelism is a repetition of similar syntactic structures in close proximity.

142. Chiasmus is a kind of parallelism where the word order of the sentence or clause that follows
becomes inverted.
 Unit 9

143. Setting of the story indicates time and place of the (events).
144. Plot is a sequence of events in which the characters are involved, the theme and the idea revealed.
145. Exposition refers to the explanatory information a reader needs to comprehend the situation in the

story. ()

146. The climax is the point of the greatest conflict, the emotional high point or the turning point in the

plot. ()

147. The falling action leads into the (resolution) or denouement of the story.

148. Narration is the author's story about the events and about the actions of personages. ()

149. In the first person narration, the narrator is the (mouthpiece) of the author.
150. Description supplies the details of appearance of the characters, of the place and time of action.
151. (Argumentation) presents causes and effects of the personage’s behavior.
152. The flashback is the presentation of material that occurred (before) the events of the story.
153. Foreshadowing gives the hints or clues that suggest or prepare the reader for events that occur later

in a work. ()

154. Suspense is the feeling of anxious (anticipation), expectation, or uncertainty.

155. Coincidence is the chance occurrence of two things at the same time or place to denote the workings
of Fate in a person's life.
156. When the writer does not interfere into the process of the character's thinking it results in the stream-
of-consciousness technique.
157. Represented unuttered speech is the mental representation of the character's thinking.
158. Tone is achieved through (descriptive) details of setting and character.
159. Theme is an author’s (insight) or general observation about human nature or the human condition.