Practice Section I.

1. Comment on the notions of style and sublanguages in the national language.

2. What are the interdisciplinary links of stylistics and other lin­guistic subjects such as phonetics, lexicology, grammar, and semasiology? Provide examples.

How does stylistics differ from them hi its subject-matter and fields of study?

3. Give an outline of the stylistic differentiation of the national English vocabulary: neutral, literary, colloquial layers of words;

areas of their overlapping. Describe literary and common collo­quial stratums of vocabulary, their stratification.

4. How does stylistic colouring and stylistic neutrality relate to inherent and adherent stylistic connotation?

5. Can you distinguish neutral, formal and informal among the following groups of words.

	A	B	C
1.	currency	money	dough
2.	to talk	to converse	to chat
3.	to chow down	to eat	to dine
4.	to start	to commence	to kick off
5.	insane	nuts	mentally ill
6.	spouse	hubby	husband
7.	to leave	to withdraw	to shoot off
8.	geezer	senior citizen	old man
9.	veracious	opens	sincere
10.	mushy	emotional	sentimental

6. What kind of adherent stylistic meaning appears in the otherwise neutral word feeling?

I've got no feeling paying interest, provided that it's reasonable. (Shute)

I've got no feeling against small town life. I rather like it. (Shute)

7. To what stratum of vocabulary do the words in bold type in the following sentences belong stylistically? Provide neutral or colloquial variants for them:

/ expect you've seen my hand often enough coming out with the grub. (Waugh)

She betrayed some embarrassment when she handed Paul the tickets, and a hauteur which subsequently made her feel very foolish. (Gather)

I must be off to my digs. (Waugh)

When the old boy popped off he left Philbrick everything, except a few books to Grade. (Waugh)

He looked her over and decided that she was not appropriately dressed and must be a fool to sit downstairs in such togs. (Gather)

It was broken at length by the arrival of Flossie, splendidly attired in magenta and green. (Waugh)

8. Consider the following utterances from the point of view of the grammatical norm. What elements can be labelled as deviations from standard English? How do they comply with the norms of colloquial English according to Skrebnev?

Sita decided that she would lay down in the dark even if Mrs. Waldvogel came in and bit her. (Erdrich)

Always popular with the boys, he was, even when he was so full he

couldn't hardly figh^ (Waugh)

...he used to earn five pound a night... (Waugh)

/ wouldn't sell it not for a hundred quid, I wouldn't. (Waugh)

Practice Section

There was a rapping at the bedroom door. «I’ll learn that Luden Sorrels to tomcat.» (Chappel)

9. How does the choice of words in each case contribute to the stylistic character of the following passages? How would you define their functional colouring in terms of technical, poetic, bookish, commercial, dialectal, religious, elevated, colloquial, legal or other style?

Make up lists of words that create this tenor in the texts given below.

Whilst humble pilgrims lodged in hospices, a travelling knight would normally stay with a merchant. (Rutherfurd)

 

Fo' what you go by dem, eh? Wy not keep to yo'self? Dey don' want you, dey don' care fo'you. H' am'you got no sense? (Dunbar-Nelson)

 

They sent me down to the aerodrome next morning in a car. I made a check over the machine, cleaned filters, drained sumps, swept out the cabin, and refuelled. Finally I took off at about ten thirty for the short flight down to Batavia across the Sunda straits, and found the aerodrome and came on to the circuit behind the Constellation of K. L. M. (Shute)

 

We ask Thee, Lord, the old man cried, to look after this childt. Fa­therless he is. But what does the earthly father matter before Thee? The childt is Thine, he is Thy childt, Lord, what father has a man but Thee? (Lawrence)

 

— We are the silver band the Lord bless and keep you, said the stationmaster in one breath, the band that no one could beat whatever but two indeed in the Eisteddfod that for all North Wales was look you.

I see, said the Doctor, I see. That's splendid. Well, will you please go into your tent, the little tent over there.

To march about you would not like us? Suggested the stationmaster; we have a fine flag look you that embroidered for us was in silks. (Waugh)

 

The evidence is perfectly clear. The deceased woman was unfaithful to her husband during his absence overseas and gave birth to a child out of wedlock.

Her husband seemed to behave with commendable restraint and wrote nothing to her which would have led her to take her life... The deceased appears to have been the victim of her own conscience and as the time for the return of her husband drew near she became mentally upset. I find that the deceased committed suicide while the balance of her mind was temporarily deranged. (Shute)

 

I say, I've met an awful good chap called Miles. Regular topper. You know, pally. That's what I like about a really decent party—you meet such topping fellows. I mean some chaps it takes absolutely years to know, but a chap like Miles I feel is a pal straight away. (Waugh)

 

She sang first of the birth of love in the hearts of a boy and a girl. And on the topmost spray of the Rose-tree there blossomed a marvellous rose, petal following petal, as song followed song. Pale was it, at first as the mist that hangs over the river—pale as the feet of the morning. (Wide)

He went slowly about the corridors, through the writing—rooms, smoking-rooms, reception-rooms, as though he were exploring the chambers of an enchanted palace, built and peopled for him alone.

When he reached the dining-room he sat down at a table near a window.

The flowers, the white linen, the many-coloured wine-glasses, the gay toilettes of the women, the low popping of corks, the undulating repetitions of the Blue Danube fromthe orchestra, all flooded Paul's dream with bewildering radiance. (Gather)