Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices. Phonetic and Graphical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices

Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices

Example: “The night has swallowed him up”

I. R. Galperin’s classification based on the level-oriented approach:

• Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices.
• Graphical expressive means and stylistic devices.
• Lexical expressive means and stylistic devices.
• Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices.

Phonetic Expressive Means and SD

Onomatopoeia – the use of words whose sounds imitate those of an object or action: hiss, murmur.

A message with an onomatopoeic word carries not only the logical information, but also supplies the vivid portrayal of the situation described.

There are two varieties of onomatopoeia:

• Direct onomatopoeia – words that imitate natural sounds, e.g. ding-dong, burr, bang, cuckoo.
• Indirect onomatopoeia – a combination of sounds the aim of which is to make the sound of the utterance an echo of its sense.

And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain.

Phonetic Expressive Means and SD

• Alliteration – the repetition of consonants, usually in the beginning of words, e.g., Muck and money go together; Safe and sound.
• Assonance – the repetition of similar vowels, usually in stressed syllables. e.g. Dreadful young creatures – squealing and squawking.
• Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar terminal sound combination of words. Rhyming words are generally placed at a regular distance from each other. In verse they are usually placed at the end of the corresponding lines.
• Rhythm is the pattern of interchange of strong and weak segments. It's a regular recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables that make a poetic text.

Graphical Expressive Means and SD

• Sound is foregrounded mainly through the change of its accepted graphical representation. This intentional violation of the graphical shape of a word used to reflect its authentic pronunciation is called graphon.
• Graphon – effective means of supplying information about the speaker's origin, social and educational background, physical or emotional condition, etc.