Stylistics (Grammar and Style)
Download the attached file (Assignment 1). Answer all the questions and submit the file again via Blackboard.
Material covered: Unit 3
Section A: Grammar and style (p.9)
Section B: Sentence styles: development and illustration (p.59)
ENG Stylistics
Assignment
1
(5 points)
Purpose:
The purpose of this assignment is to assess your understanding of the four basic elements of clause structure (subject, predicator, complement, and adjunct).
Answer the following questions. (5 Points)
I.
Identify the subject, predicator, complement, and adjunct in each of the following clauses. (2.5 Points)
1- I couldn’t find the word in the dictionary.
2- Fog and ice are making the roads very dangerous.
3- Her husband was driving the car at the time of the accident.
4- Many residents must travel long distances to a grocery store.
5- He is a distinguished professor of law at the University of Illinois.
II.
There are TWO tests for elements of clause structure. Explain in detail and support your answer with examples. (2.5 Points)
Answer
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With My Best Wishes
1
Unit 3: Sections A and B:
Grammar and style
Sentence styles: development and illustration
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ENG 380: Stylistics
Section A:
Grammar and style
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ENG 380: Stylistics
the grammar of a language = rules
grammatical rules of a language are the language as they stipulate the very bedrock of its syntactic construction.
intimidating area of analysis because it is not always easy to sort out which aspects of a text’s many interlocking patterns of grammar are stylistically salient.
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ENG 380: Stylistics
sentence (or clause complex)
Clause (most important)
phrase (or group)
word
morpheme
Grammar rank scale (hierarchy)
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ENG 380: Stylistics
Several important functions of language can be found in any clause:
tense
polarity
Mood (declarative, interrogative or imperative)
Core or nub (central idea/point)
The Clause
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ENG 380: Stylistics
It is a defining characteristic of clause structure that its four basic elements are typically realised by certain types of phrases.
Basic Clause Structure:
Subject (usually filled with a noun phrase)
Predicator (always filled with a verb phrase)
Complement (usually filled with a noun or adjective phrase)
Adjunct (usually filled with an adverb or prepositional phrase)
Clause Structure
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ENG 380: Stylistics
The woman feeds those pigeons regularly.
Our bull terrier was chasing the postman yesterday.
The Professor of Necromancy would wear lipstick every Friday.
The Aussie actress looked great in her latest film.
The man who came to dinner was pretty miserable throughout the evening.
Identify the elements of clause structure
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ENG 380: Stylistics
Method 1: Look for placement, and ask “wh-” questions.
Subject
Who/What?
In front of the verb
Finding the Complement:
Who/What?
After the verb
Finding the Adjunct:
How/When/Where/Why?
After the verb
Method 2: Add a ‘tag question’ to the declarative form of a clause.
Narrows the subject down to a single pronoun
Identifies auxiliary verbs, tense, etc.
Testing for Clause Constituents
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ENG 380: Stylistics
Mary’s curious contention that mackerel live in trees proved utterly
unjustified.
Form a tag question.
Example: tag question
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ENG 380: Stylistics
Coordination:
“My aunt and my uncle visit the farm regularly, don’t they?”
Two entities/people coordinated with “and”
Apposition:
“The winner, a local businesswoman, had donated the prize to charity, had she?”
Two phrases referencing the same entity/person (the winner, a local businesswoman)
Testing for Clause Constituents: An Example
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ENG 380: Stylistics
Variations in Interrogatives
Subject-Predicator Inversion
“Do” Insertion
Variations in Declaratives
Subject-Predicator only
Double Complements (direct object and indirect object)
Any number of Adjuncts
Mary awoke suddenly in her hotel room one morning because of a knock on the door.
Clause Structure Variation
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ENG 380: Stylistics
Ellipsis
Predicator is eliminated in context because of a previous reference
This is called a ‘minor clause’
A: “Where are the keys?”
B: “In your pocket!”
they form an important locus (place) for stylistic experimentation.
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ENG 380: Stylistics
Section B:
Sentence styles: development and illustration
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ENG 380: Stylistics
Consists of one clause
Stylistic use:
Frenetic/Urgent
Fast-paced
The Simple Sentence
He ate his supper.
He went to bed.
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ENG 380: Stylistics
“I tried to examine myself. I felt my pulse. I could not at first feel any pulse at all. Then, all of a sudden, it seemed to start off. I pulled out my watch and timed it. I made it a hundred and forty-seven to the minute. I tried to feel my heart. I could not feel my heart. It had stopped beating.” Three Men in a Boat
Style description and its effect:
Most sentences are made of single independent clause. This style gives a sense of speed and urgency which helps to show the anxiety of the character as he examines himself.
Example
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ENG 380: Stylistics
Consists of two or more independent clauses
Coordination shows equal status
Coordinating conjunctions
And (direct coordinator)
But (adversive coordinator)
Or
So
For
yet
Stylistic use:
Symmetry, connection
Popular in junior readers
and nursery rhymes
The Compound Sentence
He ate his supper
he went to bed.
and
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ENG 380: Stylistics
Consists of one independent clause and two or more subordinate clauses
Asymmetrical/subordinating relationship
Subordinating conjunctions
When
Although
If
Because
Since
The Complex Sentence (Type 1): subordination
When he had eaten his supper,
he went to bed.
although he had just eaten his supper.
He went to bed
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ENG 380: Stylistics
Consists of one main clause and one embedded (downranked) clause
Embedded Relationship
The Complex Sentence (Type 2): embedding
She announced that
he had gone to bed.
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ENG 380: Stylistics
Equivalent constituents
Adjuncts and/or subordinate clauses placed both before and after the Subject/Predicator
“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day” (Macbeth, V.v.19–20).
Trailing constituents
Adjuncts and/or subordinate clauses placed after the Subject/Predicator
“You walked with me among water mint
And bog myrtle when I was tongue-tied” (Longley 1995).
Anticipatory constituents
Adjuncts and/or subordinate clauses placed before the Subject/Predicator
“On my right hand there were lines of fishing-stakes resembling a mysterious system of half submerged fences” (Conrad 1995 [1912]: 1).
Constituent Types
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ENG 380: Stylistics
Un-elaboration of the noun “fog”: undifferentiated, undetermined.
Restricted verbal development in main clauses. one key element is omitted (finite) which provides tense, polarity and person. On going process.
Trailing constituents. subordinate clauses and Adjuncts of location. It refers to the fog? Or to the river? Indeterminacy.
Gradual narrowing of spatial focus
Internal foregrounding: by creating a different Subject element and by shifting the lexical item ‘fog’ to the right of the Predicator in the sixth sentence.
Stylistics features of Charles Dickens’s novel Bleak House
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ENG 380: Stylistics
Style comes from the totality of interrelated elements of language
rather than from individual features in isolation.
Summary
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ENG 380: Stylistics
Simpson, P. (2004). Stylistics: A Resource Book for Students (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN 9780415644969 (print edition).
References
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ENG 380: Stylistics