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Lecture 4
STYLISTIC MORPHOLOGY / MORPHOLOGICAL STYLISTICS
Stylistic Morphology is interested in the stylistic potentials of specific grammatical forms and
categories.
I. Stylistic potential of the parts of speech
A) The noun and its stylistic potential
The stylistic power of a noun is closely linked to the grammatical categories this part of speech
possesses: number, person and case.
 The use of a singular noun instead of an appropriate plural form creates a generalized, elevated
effect often bordering on symbolization.
The faint fresh flame of the young year flushes
From leaf to flower and from flower to fruit
And fruit and leaf are as gold and fire.
(Swinburn)
 The contrary device—the use of plural instead of singular—as a rule makes the description more
powerful and large-scale.
The clamour of waters, snows, winds, rains... (Hemingway)
The lone and level sands stretch far away. (Shelly)
The plural form of an abstract noun, whose lexical meaning is alien to the notion of number
makes it not only more expressive, but brings about what Vinogradov called aesthetic semantic
growth.
Heaven remained rigidly in its proper place on the other side of death, and on this side
flourished the injustices, the cruelties, the meannesses, that elsewhere people so cleverly hushed up.
(Green)
Thus one feeling is represented as a number of emotional states, each with a certain connotation
of a new meaning. Emotions may signify concrete events, happenings, doings.
Proper names employed as plural lend the narration a unique generalizing effect:
If you forget to invite somebody's Aunt Millie, I want to be able to say I had nothing to do with it.
There were numerous Aunt Millies because of, and in spite of Arthur's and Edith's triple checking of
the list. (O'Hara)
 Personification. Personification transposes a common noun into the class of proper
names by attributing to it thoughts or qualities of a human being. As a result the
syntactical, morphological and lexical valency of this noun changes:
England's mastery of the seas, too, was growing even greater. Last year her trading rivals the
Dutch had pushed out of several colonies... (Rutherfurd)
The category of case (possessive case) which is typical of the proper nouns, since it denotes
possession becomes a mark of personification in cases like the following one:
Love's first snowdrop
Virgin kiss!
(Burns)
Abstract nouns transposed into the class of personal nouns are charged with various emotional
connotations, as in the following examples where personification appears due to the unexpected
lexico-grammatical valency:
The woebegone fragment of womanhood in the corner looked a little less terrified when she
saw the wine. (Waugh)
The chubby little eccentricity. (a child)
The old oddity (an odd old person}. (Arnold)
The emotive connotations in such cases may range from affection to irony or distaste.
So, although the English noun has fewer grammatical categories, than the Russian one, its
stylistic potential in producing grammatical metaphor is high enough.
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B. The article and its stylistic potential

The article may be an expressive element of narration especially when used with proper names.
 The indefinite article may convey evaluative connotations when used with a proper
name:
I'm a Marlow by birth, and we are a hot-blooded family. (Follett)
It may be charged with a negative evaluative connotation and diminish the importance of
someone's personality, make it sound insignificant.
Besides Rain, Nan and Mrs. Prewett, there was a Mrs. Kingsley, the wife of one of the
Governors. (Dolgopolova)
A Forsyte is not an uncommon animal. (Galsworthy)
 The definite article used with a proper name may become a powerful expressive
means to emphasize the person's good or bad qualities.
Well, she was married to him. And what was more she loved him. Not the Stanley whom
everyone saw, not the everyday one; but a timid, sensitive, innocent Stanley who knelt down every
night to say his prayers... (Dolgopolova)
You are not the Andrew Manson I married. (Cronin)
The definite article in the following example serves as an intensifier of the epithet used in the
character's description:
My good fellow, I said suavely, what brings me here is this: I want to see the evening sun go
down over the snow-tipped Sierra Nevada. Within the hour he had spread this all over the town and I
was pointed out for the rest of my visit as the mad Englishman. (Atkinson)
The definite article may contribute to the devices of gradation or help create the rhythm of the
narration as in the following examples:
But then he would lose Sondra, his connections here, and his uncle—this world! The loss! The
loss! The loss! (Dreiser)
 No article, or the omission of article before a common noun conveys a maximum level
of abstraction, generalization.
The postmaster and postmistress, husband and wife, ...looked carefully at every piece of mail...
(Erdrich)
Not sound, not quiver as if horse and man had turned to metal. (Dolgopolova)

C. The stylistic power of the pronoun

The stylistic functions of the pronoun also depend on the disparity between the traditional and
contextual meanings. This is the grammatical metaphor of the first type based on the transposition of
the form, when one pronoun is transposed into the action sphere of another pronoun.

Personal pronouns
We, You, They and others can be employed in the meaning different from their dictionary
meaning.
 The pronoun we that means «speaking together or on behalf of other people» can be
used with reference to a single person, the speaker, and is called the plural of majesty.
It is used in Royal speech, decrees of King, etc.
And for that offence immediately do we exile him hence. (Shakespeare)
The plural of modesty or the author's we is used with the purpose to identify oneself with the
audience or society at large. Employing the plural of modesty the author involves the reader into the
action making him a participant of the events and imparting the emotions prevailing in the narration to
the reader.
My poor dear child, cried Miss Crawly, ...is our passion unrequited then?
Are we pining in secret? Tell me all, and let me console you. (Thackeray)
 The pronoun you is often used as an intensifier in an expressive address or imperative:
Just you go in and win. (Waugh)
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Get out of my house, you fool, you idiot, you stupid old Briggs. (Thackeray)
 The personal pronoun they has a purely expressive function because it does not
substitute any real characters but has a generalising meaning and indicates some
abstract entity. The implication is meant to oppose the speaker and his interlocutor to
this indefinite collective group of people.
All the people like us are we, and everyone else is they. (Kipling)
 Such pronouns as One, You, We have two major connotations: that of 'identification' of
the speaker and the audience and 'generalization' (contrary to the individual meaning).
Note should be made of the fact that such pronouns as We, One, You that are often used in a
generalized meaning of 'a human being' may have a different stylistic value for different authors.
Speaking of such English writers as Aldus Huxley, Bertrand Russel and D. H. Lawrence, J.
Miles writes in her book “Style and Proportion”: The power of Huxley's general ONE is closer to
Russel's WE than to Lawrence's YOU though all are talking about human nature.
She points out that scientists like Charles Darwin, Adam Smith and many others write using
ONE much in the same way as Huxley does. She maintains that it is not merely the subject of writing
but the attitude, purpose and sense of verbal tradition that establish these distinctions in expression.
 Employed by the author as a means of speech characterisation the overuse of the
pronoun I testifies to the speaker's complacency and egomania while you or one used
in reference to oneself characterise the speaker as a reserved, self-controlled person.
At the same time the speaker creates a closer rapport with his interlocutor and achieves
empathy.
— You can always build another image for yourself to fall in love with. —No, you can't. That's
the trouble, you lose the capacity for building. You run short of the stuff that creates beautiful
illusions. (Priestly)
When the speaker uses the third person pronoun instead of I or we he/she sort of looks at
oneself from a distance, which produces the effect of estrangement and generalization.

Possessive pronouns
may be loaded with evaluative connotations and devoid of any grammatical meaning of
possession.
Watch what you're about, my man! (Cronin)
Your precious Charles or Frank or your stupid Ashley! (Mitchell)
The same function is fulfilled by the absolute possessive form in structures like Well, you tell
that Herman of yours to mind his own business. (London)
The range of feelings they express may include irony, sarcasm, anger, contempt, resentment,
irritation, etc.

Demonstrative pronouns
may greatly enhance the expressive colouring of the utterance.
That wonderful girl! That beauty! That world of wealth and social position she lived in! (London)
These lawyers! Don't you know they don't eat often? (Dreiser)

Pronouns are a powerful means to convey the atmosphere of informal or familiar

communication or an attempt to achieve it. It was Robert Ackly, this guy that roomed right next to me.
(Salinger) Claws in, you cat. (Shaw)
Through the figurative use of the personal pronouns the author may achieve metaphorical
images and even create sustained compositional metaphors.
He always thought of the sea as 'la mar' which is what people call her in Spanish when they
love her. Sometimes those who love her say bad things about her but they are always said as though
she were a woman. (Hemingway)
He is a great fish and f must convince him, he thought. I must never let him learn his strength.
(Hemingway)
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D. The adjective and its stylistic functions

The only grammatical category of the English adjective today is that of comparison.
Comparison is only the property of qualitative and quantitative adjectives, but not of the relative ones.
When adjectives that are not normally used in a comparative degree are used with this category they
are charged with a strong expressive power.
Mrs. Thompson, Old Man Fellow's housekeeper had found him deader than a doornail...
(Mangum)
This is a vivid example of a grammatical transposition of the second type built on the
incongruity of the lexical and grammatical meanings.
In the following example the unexpected superlative adjective degree forms lend the sentence a
certain rhythm and make it even more expressive: ...fifteen millions of workers, understood to be the
strangest, the cunningest, the willingest our Earth ever had. (Skrebnev)
The commercial functional style makes a wide use of the violation of grammatical norms to
captivate the reader's attention: The orangemostest drink in the world.

The transposition of other parts of speech into the adjective creates stylistically marked
pieces of description: A camouflage of general suffuse and dirty-jeaned drabness covers everybody
and we merge into the background. (Marshall)
The use of comparative or superlative forms with other parts of speech may also convey a
humorous colouring: He was the most married man I've ever met. (Arnold)

An adjective may get substantivized and acquire the qualities of a noun such as «solid, firm,
tangible, hard,» etc. All Europe was in arms, and England would join. The impossible had happened.
(Aldington)

E. The verb and its stylistic properties

The verb is one of the oldest parts of speech and has a very developed grammatical paradigm. It
possesses more grammatical categories that any other part of speech. All deviant usages of its tense,
voice and aspect forms have strong stylistic connotations and play an important role in creating a
metaphorical meaning. A vivid example of the grammatical metaphor of the first type (form
transposition) is the use of 'historical present' that makes the description very pictorial, almost visible.
The letter was received by a person of the royal family. While reading it she was interrupted,
had no time to hide it and was obliged to put it open on the table. At this enters the Minister D... He
sees the letter and guesses her secret. He first talks to her on business, then takes out a letter from his
pocket, reads it, puts it down on the table near the other letter, talks for some more minutes, then,
when taking leave, takes the royal lady's letter from the table instead of his own. The owner of the
letter saw it, was afraid to say anything for there were other people in the room. (Poe)
The use of 'historical present' pursues the aim of joining different time systems—that of the
characters, of the author and of the reader all of whom may belong to different epochs. This can be
done by making a reader into an on-looker or a witness whose timeframe is synchronous with the
narration. The outcome is an effect of empathy ensured by the correlation of different time and tense
systems.
The combination and unification of different time layers may also be achieved due to the
universal character of the phenomenon described, a phenomenon that is typical of any society at any
time and thus make the reader a part of the events described.

Various shades of modality impart stylistically coloured expressiveness to the utterance. The
Imperative form and the Present Indefinite referred to the future render determination:
Edward, let there be an end of this. I go home. (Dickens)
The use of shall with the second or third person will denote the speaker's emotions, intention or
determination: If there's a disputed decision, he said genially, they shall race again. (Waugh)
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The prizes shall stand among the bank of flowers. (Waugh)
Similar connotations are evoked by the emphatic use of will with the first person pronoun:
Adam, what have you been doing? I will be told. (Waugh)

Likewise continuous forms do not always express continuity of the action and are frequently
used to convey the speaker's state of mind, his mood, his intentions or feelings.
So continuous forms may express:
• conviction, determination, persistence:
Well, she's never coming here again, I tell you that straight; (Maugham)
• impatience, irritation:
—/ didn't mean to hurt you.
— You did. You're doing nothing else. (Shaw)
• surprise, indignation, disapproval:
Women kill me. They are always leaving their goddam bags out in the middle of the aisle.
(Salinger)
Present Continuous may be used instead of the Present Indefinite form to characterize the
current emotional state or behaviour: You are being very absurd, Laura, he said coldly. (Mansfield)
Verbs of physical and mental perception do not regularly have continuous forms. When they
do, however, we observe a semi-marked structure that is highly emphatic due to the incompatible
combination of lexical meaning and grammatical form. Why, you must be the famous Captain Butler
we have been hearing so much about—the blockade runner. (Mitchell) I must say you're disappointing
me, my dear fellow. (Berger)

The use of non-finite forms of the verb such as the infinitive and participle I in place of the
personal forms communicates certain stylistic connotations to the utterance.
Expect Leo to propose to her! (Lawrence)
To take steps! How? Winifred's affair was bad enough! To have a double dose of publicity in
the family! (Galsworthy)
Far be it from him to ask after Reinhart's unprecedented getup and environs. (Berger)
Since the sentences containing the infinitive have no explicit doer of the action these sentences
acquire a generalized universal character. The world of the personage and the reader blend into one
whole as if the question is asked of the reader (what to do, how to act). This creates empathy. The
same happens when participle I is used impersonally:
The whole thing is preposterous—preposterous! Slinging accusations like this! (Christie)

The passive voice of the verb when viewed from a stylistic angle may demonstrate such
functions as extreme generalisation and depersonalisation because an utterance is devoid of the doer of
an action and the action itself loses direction.
...he is a long-time citizen and to be trusted... (Michener)
Little Mexico, the area was called contemptuously, as sad and filthy a collection of dwellings
as had ever been allowed to exist in the west. (Michener)

The use of the auxiliary do in affirmative sentences is a notable emphatic device:

/ don't want to look at Sita. I sip my coffee as long as possible. Then I do look at her and see
that all the colour has left her face, she is fearfully pale. (Erdrich)
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II. Affixation and its expressiveness

English does not possess a great variety of word-forming resources. We can find some
evaluative affixes as a remnant of the former morphological system or as a result of borrowing from
other languages, such as: weakling, piglet, rivulet, girlie, lambkin, kitchenette.
Diminutive suffixes make up words denoting small dimensions, but also giving them a
caressing, jocular or pejorative ring.These suffixes enable the speaker to communicate his positive or
negative evaluation of a person or thing.

The suffix -ian/-ean means 'like someone or something, especially connected with a particular
thing, place or person', e. g. the pre-Tolstoyan novel. It also denotes someone skilled in or studying a
particular subject: a historian. The connotations this suffix may convey are positive and it is frequently
used with proper names, especially famous in art, literature, music, etc. Such adjectives as Mozartean,
Skakespearean, Wagnerian mean like Mozart, Shakespeare, Wagner or in that style.
However some of these adjectives may possess connotations connected with common
associations with the work and life of famous people that may have either positive or negative
colouring. For instance The Longman Dictionary of the English Language and Culture gives such
definitions of the adjective Dickensian: suggesting Charles Dickens or his writing, e. g. A) the old-
fashioned, unpleasant dirtiness of Victorian England: Most deputies work two to an office in a space of
Dickensian grimness. B) the cheerfulness of Victorian amusements and customs: a real Dickensian
Christmas.

The suffix -ish is not merely a neutral morpheme meaning a small degree of quality like blue—
bluish, but it serves to create 'delicate or tactful' occasional evaluative adjectives—baldish, dullish,
biggish. Another meaning is 'belonging or having characteristics of somebody or something'. Most
dictionaries also point out that -ish may show disapproval (selfish, snobbish, raffish) and often has a
derogatory meaning indicating the bad qualities of something or qualities which are not suitable to
what it describes (e.g. mannish in relation to a woman).

Another suffix used similarly is -esque, indicating style, manner, or distinctive character:
arabesque, Romanesque. When used with the names of famous people it means ‘in the manner or style
of this particular person'. Due to its French origin it is considered bookish and associated with
exquisite elevated style. Such connotations are implied in adjectives like Dantesque, Kafkaesque.

Most frequently used suffixes of the negative evaluation are: -ard, -ster, -aster, -eer or half-
affix –monger: drunkard, scandal-monger, black-marketeer, mobster.

Considering the problem of expressive affixes differentiation should be made between negative
affixes such as in-, un-, ir-, поп-, etc. (unbending, irregular, non-profit) and evaluative derogatory
affixes. Evaluative affixes with derogatory connotations demonstrate the speaker's attitude to the
phenomenon while negative affixes normally represent objects and phenomena that are either devoid
of some quality or do not exist at all (e. g. a non-profit organization has mostly positive connotations).