Stylistics Exam Preparation (Part 2)

Ellipsis

Is the absence of one or both principal parts (the subject, the predicate) in a syntactical construction (those are implied or clear from the context) (“I had dinner with some friends” I said “Where” “Southport”) 

Aposiopesis

Break in the narrative usually signalised by em dashes (-) or ellipsis (...)

Asyndeton

Avoidance of conjunctions

Types of repetition:

ordinary repetition, anaphora, epiphora, framing repetition, catch repetition (anadiplosis), chain repetition

Framing repetition

A repetition in which the opening word or phrase is repeated at the end of the sentence or a group of sentences (Obviously – this is a streptococcal infection. Obviously)

Catch repetition (anadiplosis)

A device in which the last word or phrase of one clause, sentence, or line is repeated at the beginning of the next (They laughed. They laughed because he could not find Tommy Flynn)

Chain repetition

A combination of catch repetitions (The smile extended into laugh; the laugh into roar, the roar became general)

Polysyndeton

A lot of conjunctions are used

Emphatic constructions

May intensify any member of a sentence, giving it more prominence (by the means of “do”, “it is somebody who”, “it is then that”)

Syntactic split

Is the splitting of a noun phrase by the attribute adjunct which is removed from the word it modifies (He had never seen the truth about anything before -> He had never seen the truth before, about anything)

Detachment

Is a separation of a secondary part of the sentence with the aim of emphasizing it (Mrs. Rymer was a tall woman, big-boned)

Parcellation

Is a deliberate break of the sentence structure into two or more isolated parts, separated by a pause and a period

Chiasmus

Reversed parallelism, the word order of the sentence or clause that follows becomes inverted (Love’s fire heats water, water cools not love)

Figure and ground

Complementary terms, the differentiation happens unconsciously in the mind of the reader, our mind automatically splits information into two parts, the smaller/movable one is usually more prominent, whereas bigger/more permanent is less distinct (ex. We say “The bike is next to the house”, not “The house is next to the bike”)

Prototypicality

Is the part of the categorisation process, rather than having concrete categories or brain measures everything on a scale that is individual to every person (ex. Who is more dog-like a poodle or a cat -> a poodle, but if a cat or a spider than a cat is more dog-like)

Ambience

A framing device, setting the atmosphere, the background (ex. The room is dimly lit) can be about the overall mood of the text as well

Resonance

Is about the emotional impact of the literary work, how memorable it is, how it resonates with the reader (this effect can be created deliberately through a certain phrase, powerful image, etc.)

Simulation

The process when we simulate certain experiences, images in our minds and can be emotionally moved by those scenes

Deictic projection

The reader projects him- or herself into other “person”, place or time by the means of language, through deictic words (like: here, you, me, next Tuesday, etc.) (ex. I’ll come over in 10 minutes – you imagine you are already there, or you imagine yourself in the body of the main character of the story) 

Mind-modelling

Readers imagine what are the minds, background stories, and emotions of the characters are, although they basically don’t know them

Source domain (conceptual metaphors)

Something concrete through (be the means of) which the abstract thing is explained

Target domain (conceptual metaphors)

Something abstract, something that is being explained

Referential conceptual metonymy mappings:

Part for Whole, Whole for Part, Part for Institution, Producer for Products

Predicational metonymy (?)

Connected to the action, small part of an act is used to describe the whole act (ex. She grabbed a taxi -> grabbing is only one act in the long list: calling a taxi, waiting, entering, paying, traveling)

Illocutionary metonymy (?)

One act stands for another one (ex. Where is the bath soap? - implies that we don’t know where it is)