Week 4

Stylistics and Discourse Analysis

E. Denotative vs. Connotative
Connotation and Denotation are two principal methods of describing the meanings of words.
Connotation refers to the wide array of positive and negative associations that most words naturally carry
with them, whereas denotation is the precise, literal definition of a word that might be found in a dictionary.
Connotation is the emotional and imaginative association surrounding a word. Denotation is the strict
dictionary meaning of a word.
Connotation and denotation are not two separate things/signs. They are two aspects/ elements of a sign,
and the connotative meanings of a word exist together with the denotative meanings]. − Connotation
represents the various social overtones, cultural implications, or emotional meanings associated with a sign.
− Denotation represents the explicit or referential meaning of a sign. Denotation refers to the literal meaning
of a word, the ‘dictionary definition.’
For example, the name ‘Hollywood’ connotes such things as glitz, glamour, tinsel, celebrity, and
dreams of stardom. In the same time, the name ‘Hollywood’ denotes an area of Los Angeles, worldwide
known as the center of the American movie industry.
Words have both denotations (literal meanings) and connotations (suggestive meanings). Fungus is a
scientific term denoting a certain kind of natural growth, but the word also has certain connotations of
disease and ugliness. Connotations can be both positive and negative; for example, lady carries a hint of
both elegance and subservience. The influence of connotative meaning can also change the denotative
meaning, one example being the thoroughly transformed word gay.
Denotation refers to the literal meaning of a word, the "dictionary definition."¨ For example, if you
look up the word snake in a dictionary, you will discover that one of its denotative meanings is "any of
numerous scaly, legless, sometimes venomous reptiles having a long, tapering, cylindrical body and found
in most tropical and temperate regions." • Connotation, on the other hand, refers to the associations that are
connected to a certain word or the emotional suggestions related to that word. The connotative meanings
of a word exist together with the denotative meanings. The connotations for the word snake could include
evil or danger.
Loaded Words: Using Denotation and Connotation Directions:
Read each list of words below. Each word has a different connotation, but has the same general denotation.
Decide what the general denotation is for each group. Write your answer on the line provided. Then, number
the words in each group from most positive connotation to most negative connotation.

Example: 3. thin ___ imprison ___ uprising

4. bony ___ relocate ___ riot
1. slim ___ incarcerate ___ demonstration
5. anorexic ___ intern ___ unlawful gathering
2. slender ___ evacuate ___ protest
____thin____ (general ___ detain ___ disturbance
denotation) ___ lock-up _______ (general denotation)
___ confine
 ________ (general denotation)
___ prisoner ___ guerrilla ___internment camps
___ evacuee ___ freedom fighter ___detention camps
___ internee ___ mercenary ___assembly centers
___ detainee ___ soldier ___concentration camps
___ inmate ___ terrorist ___prison camps
________(general denotation) ________ (general denotation) ___relocation centers
___temporary detention centers
________ (general denotation)

F. Linguistic vs. Extra lingual Contexts

A linguistic context is the encirclement of a language unit by other language units in speech. Such
encirclement makes the meaning of the unit clear and unambiguous. It is especially important in case with
polysemantic words.
An extra lingual (situational) context is formed by extra lingual conditions in which communication
takes place. Besides making the meaning of words well-defined, a situational context allows the speaker to
economize on speech efforts and to avoid situationally redundant language signs.
EXAMPLE: The commands of a surgeon in an operating room, such as "scalpel",
"pincers" or "tampon", are understood by his assistants correctly and without any additional explanations
about what kind of tampon is needed.
Extra lingual context can be physical or abstract and can significantly affect the communication. A
conversation between lovers can be affected by surroundings in terms of music, location, and the presence
of others. Such surroundings form a physical context. A dialogue between colleagues can be affected by
the nature of their relationship. That is, one may be of higher status than the other. Such nature forms an
abstract context.

F.1. Microcontext is the context of a single utterance (sentence).

F.2. Macrocontext is the context of a paragraph in a text.
F.3. Megacontext is the context of a book chapter, a story or the whole book.

G. Expressiveness vs. Emotiveness

Expressiveness – a kind of intensification of an utterance or a part of it.
Emotiveness – the emotions of writer or speaker.
Expressiveness is broader than emotiveness. Emotiveness occupies a predominant position in
expressiveness. There are media in language, which aim at logical emphasis of a certain part of utterance.
They evoke no feelings but serve the purpose of verbal actualization of the utterance.

H.1. Expressive Means

Expressive Means – phonetic, morphological, word-building, lexical, phraseological and syntactical
forms which exist in language-as-a-system for the purpose of logical and/or emotional intensification of the
utterance. All these forms have neutral synonyms.
 Phonetic expressive means: pitch, melody, stress, whispering, manner of speaking, pauses, etc.
  Word-building expressive means: suffixes and productive patterns of word formation.
 Lexical expressive means: words, which obtain inherent expressiveness, perceived without any
context. There are words with emotive meaning only, words which have both referential and
emotive meaning, slang, vulgar, poetic and archaic words, set-phrases and phraseological units.
 Morphological expressive means: grammatical forms (tenses, pronouns, articles, modal verbs)
which obtain inherent expressiveness, perceived without any context.
 Syntactical expressive means: constructions, which reveal a certain degree of logical and emotional
emphasis.

H.2. Stylistics Devices

Stylistic Device is a conscious and intentional intensification of some typical structure and/or
semantic property of a language unit (neutral or expressive) promoted to a generalized status and
thus becoming a generative model. Stylistic devices function in texts as marked units and always
carry additional information.
Most stylistic devices display an application of two meanings: the ordinary one, which has
already been established in the language-as-a-system, and a special meaning which is attributed to
the unit by text, i.e. a meaning which appears in the language-in-action.
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.
 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.
The main functions of graphon are:
 to express the author's attitude to the characters, e.g. butler Yellowplush impresses his listeners
with the learned words pronouncing them as "sellybrated" (celebrated), "bennyviolent"
(benevolent).
 to show the physical defects of the speakers, e.g. the stuttering "The b-b-b-b-bas-tud - he seen me
c--c-c-c-coming“,
 to convey the atmosphere of authentic live communication, of the informality of the speech act,
e.g. "gimme" (give me), "lemme" (let me), "gonna" (going to), "gotta" (got to), etc.
Graphical changes may reflect not only the peculiarities of pronunciation, but are also used to convey the
intensity of the stress, emphasizing and thus foregrounding the stressed words.
To such purely graphical means we should refer
 all changes of the type (italics, capitalization),
 spacing of graphemes (hyphenation, multiplication) and of lines, e.g. “Help. Help. HELP”; “He
was grinning like a chim-pan-zee”; “Alllll aboarrrrrd”.

UNIT 2: LITERARY PROSE AND DRAMA STYLISTICS

A. Review of Prose and Drama

Prose is a type of writing that is quite close to the manner in which a person speaks, but is organised into
grammatically correct sentences and paragraphs which identify groups of information that are related.
Among the three, it is the only form with a strict set of rules for how it is organised. Today, what we see
in our minds as prose is something that has evolved by design over several centuries of learning and
experimentation.
Prose: Prose is not about rhyming or using ornamental words.
 It is simple but expressive.
 It expresses the feelings in a way which is easy to read and understand.
 There are no verses or stanzas, sentences take their place in prose.
 It is straightforward.
 Authors sometimes dabble between the two to give a good combination. Shakespeare uses both
in some plays.
 Short stories, novels, plays etc usually fall under this type of literature.

Drama, as opposed to prose rather than as a type of, is any writing that is intended for performance rather
than the experience of reading it. As in poetry, there are no hard and fast rules. Often, drama is not even
recorded in its whole linguistic state, but when it is, it tends to include a mix of information intended for
performers and/or collaborators you will never see in the performance but have an equal influence on the
audience’s experience. The language itself can be in either poetry or prose or resemble neither at all.
Often, dramatic writing more closely resembles natural speech than the other two forms.

PROSE VS. DRAMA

Prose refers to written or spoken language that is not in poetic form, whether in rhythm, rhyme, or
structure. Drama is a performing art in which actors use dialogue and actions to tell a story or convey a
message to a viewing audience. In most cases, dramatic works are written down so that the performers can
memorize and rehearse the lines before performing them live. The written form of a drama takes the
structure of a script. While prose is written in paragraph form, dramatic scripts are written as lines of
dialogue, with the speaker's name clearly designated before each line. Instructions for the director about the
set or for the performers about their actions are written in notes, usually set in italics, before or between the
lines of dialogue. These notes are usually quite sparse, because the director will determine a significant
amount of the choreography and will teach it to the actors during rehearsals. Thus, when one reads the script
of a drama instead of seeing it performed, one misses out on a great deal of description that would explain
the characters' movements and expressions. Prose allows the author, depending on the chosen point of view,
to describe inner thoughts and feelings of characters. Drama requires that characters' thoughts either be
spoken aloud or portrayed via body language and movement.

Another factor to consider when differentiating between drama and prose is that dramatic scripts can
be written in either prose or verse or in a combination. William Shakespeare wrote much of his drama in
iambic pentameter. However, he often alternated between prose and poetry in his plays, with the lines of
lower-class characters written in prose and those of upper-class characters written in poetry. A scene that
contained great import might use more obvious rhyme and meter, while a less significant scene would be
written in more prosaic language.
Pre-Competency Checklist
LIST DOWN THE CHARACTERISTICS OF PROSE AND DRAMA IN SHORT PHRASES
ONLY

Prose Drama
Post-Competency Checklist
State the difference between the following terms.