Stylistic classification of the english vocabulary

d) Dialectal words

Dialectal words are such non-literary English words, which are connected with a certain area of region. They are not the property of the literary English. There is some­times a difficulty in distinguishing dialectal words from colloquial words. Some dialectal words have become so familiar that they are accepted as recognized units of the standard colloquial English. To these words belong: a lass (a girl or a beloved girl), a lad (a boy or a young man). These words belong to Scottish dialect. Many of the words fixed in dictionaries as dialectal are of Scottish origin. Among other dialects used for stylistic purposes in lite­rature is the southern dialect. This dialect has a phonetic peculiarity that distinguishes it from other dialects. For example: "volk" (folk), "vound" (found), "zee" (see), "zinking" (sinking). From Irish came the following dialec­tal words: hurley (hockey), colleen (a girl). From the nort­hern dialectal came words: "to coom" (to come), "sun" (son). Still these words have not lost their dialectal associ­ations and therefore are used in literary English with sty­listic function of characterization.

Of quite a different nature are dialectal words which are easily recognized as corruptions of Standard English words. The following words may serve as examples: "hin- ny" from "honey"; "tittie" apparently from sister, being a childish corruption of the words.

It's quite natural that dialectal words are commonly used in oral speech and emotive prose and always perform the function of characterizing a person, his breading and education through his speech..

Over-abundance or words and phrases of non-literary English not only makes the reading difficult, but actually contaminates the generally accepted norms of the English language.

Writers use dialectal words which they think will en­rich the standard English vocabulary. Among words which are easily understood by the average Englishman are "maister", "well", "enough", "neathing" and the like, characteristic of Scottish.

Dialectal words, unlike professionalism, are confined in their use to a definite locality and most of the words deal with the everyday life of the country.

A few words should be said about Cockney, which is a special dialect of the working class of London. Cockney dialect is made up of a collection of slang words. For ex­ample: "cows" is half a note, "poppy" is a slang for money.
e) Vulgar words

Vulgar words are non-standard English words, which are marked by a coarseness of speech or expressions, which are offensive, indecent. They have noting to do with words in common use nor can they be classed as col­loquialism.

There are different degrees of vulgar words. Some of them should not even be fixed in common dictionaries. They are euphemistically called "four-letter" words. A lesser degree of vulgarity is presented by words like damn, bloody, son of a bitch; to hell, a right old bag (an old woman), a nigger (a black person), and others. These vulgarisms sometimes appear in euphemistic spelling - only the initial letter is printed: d - damn, b - bloody.

The function of vulgarisms is almost the same as that of interjectuions, that is to express strong emotions, main­ly annoyance, anger. They are not to be found in any style of speech except emotive prose, and here only in the direct speech of the characters. They are mostly swear-words and expressions.

Not every coarse expression should be regarded as a vulgarism. Coarseness of expression may be in the result of grammatical mistake, non-standard pronunciation, of misuse of certain literary words and expressions, from de­liberate distortion of words. All these improprieties of speech cannot be regarded as vulgarisms.

PHONETIC EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES