Стилистические особенности языка в рассказах Джека Лондона

Contents

Introduction...................................................................................................3
Chapter I
1.1.Distinctive Features of Literary Texts.....................................................6
1.2.Definition of Style...................................................................................7
1.3. Tropes or Figures of Speech.................................................................11
Chapter II
Represented Speech and Tropes in Short Stories by Jack London..............14
Conclusion..................................................................................................18
Bibliography................................................................................................20

Стилистические особенности языка в рассказах Джека Лондона

There is a widely held view that style is the correspondence between thought and expression. The notion is based on the assumption ; that of the two functions of language, (language is said to have two functions: it serves as a means of communication and also as a means of shaping one's thoughts). The first function is called communicative, the second - expressive, the latter finds its proper materialization in strings of sentences especially arranged to convey the ideas and also to get the desired response.
Another commonly accepted connotation of the term style is embellishment of language. This concept is popular and is upheld in some of the scientific papers on literary criticism. Language and style are regarded as separate bodies, language can easily dispense with style, which is likened to the trimming on a dress. Moreover, style as an embellishment of language is viewed as something that hinders understanding. In its extreme, style may dress the thought in such fancy attire that one can hardly get at the idea hidden behind the elaborate design of tricky stylistic devices.
This notion presupposes the use of bare language forms deprived of any stylistic devices of any expressive means deliberately employed. Perhaps it is due to this notion that the word "style" itself still bears a somewhat derogatory meaning. It is associated with the idea of something pompous, showy artificial, something that is set against simplicity, truthfulness, the natural. Shakespeare was a determined enemy of all kinds of embellishments of language.
Language, being one of the means of communication or, to be exact, the most important means of communication, is regarded in the above quotation from a pragmatic point of view. Stylistics in that case is regarded as a language science which deals with the results of the act of communication.
The evaluation is also based on whether the choice of language means conforms with the most general pattern of the given type of text—a novel, a poem, a letter, a document, an article, an essay and so on. Deliberate choice must be distinguished from a habitual idiosyncrasy in the use of language units; every individual has his own manner and habits of using them.
The individual style of an author is frequently identified with the general, generic term 'style'. But as has already been pointed out, style" is a much broader notion. The individual style of an author is only one of the applications of the general term 'style'. The analysis of an author's language seems to be the most important procedure in estimating his individual style.
In every individual style we can find both the general and the particular. The greater the author is, the more genuine his style will be. If we succeed in isolating and examming the choices which the writer prefers, we can define what are the particulars that make up his style and make it recognizable. The individuality of a writer is shown not only in the choice of lexical, syntactical and stylistic means but also in their treatment. What we here call individual style, therefore, is a unique combination of language units, expressive means and stylistic devices peculiar to a given writer; which makes that writer's works or even utterances easily recognizable.
1.3. Tropes or Figures of Speech
Words in a context may acquire additional lexical meanings not fixed in the dictionaries, what we have called contextual meanings. The latter may sometimes deviate from the dictionary meaning to such a degree that the new meaning even becomes the opposite of the primary meaning. What is known in linguistics as transferred meaning is practically the interrelation between two types of lexical meaning: dictionary and contextual.
The transferred meaning of a word may be fixed in dictionaries as a result of long and frequent use of the word other than in its primary meaning. In this case we register a derivative meaning of the word. Hence the term transferred should be used signifying the£ development of the semantic structure of the word. In this case we do not perceive two meanings. When we perceive two meanings of the word simultaneously, we are confronted with a stylistic device in which the two meanings interact.
The proper interpretation of the Short Stories by J.London, in our opinion, significantly depends on such tropes as metaphor, irony, epithet, zeugma and simile use. To give their definitions let us have a look at Stylistics by I.R.Galperin:
1. The term 'metaphor', as the etymology of the word reveals, means transference of some quality from one object to another. A metaphor becomes a stylistic device when two different phenomena (things, events, ideas, actions) are simultaneously brought to mind by the imposition of some or all of the inherent properties of one object on the other which by nature is deprived of these properties. Such an imposition generally results when the creator of the metaphor finds in the two corresponding objects certain features which to his eye have something in common12.
2. Irony is a stylistic device also based on the simultaneous realization of two logical meanings - dictionary and contextual, but the two meanings stand in opposition to each other13.
3. The epithet is a stylistic device based on the interplay of emotive and logical meaning in an attributive word, phrase or even sentence used to characterize an object and pointing out to the reader, and frequently imposing on mm, some of the properties or features of the object with the aim of giving an individual perception and evaluation of these features or properties. The epithet is markedly subjective and evaluative. The logical attribute is purely objective, non-evaluating. It is descriptive and indicates an inherent or prominent feature of the thing or phenomenon in question14.
4. The intensification of some one feature of the concept in question is realized in a device called s i m i l e. Ordinary comparison and simile must not be confused. They represent two diverse processes. Comparison means weighing two objects belonging to one class of things with the purpose of establishing the degree of their sameness of difference. To use a simile is to characterize one object by bringing it into contact with another object belonging to an entirely different class of things. Comparison takes into consideration аll the properties of the two objects, stressing the one that is compared. Simile excludes all the properties of the two objects except one which is made common to them15.
5. Oxуmoron is a combination of two words (mostly an adjective and a noun or an adverb with an adjective) in which the meanings of the two clash, being opposite in sense 16.
Chapter II
Represented Speech and Tropes in Short Stories by Jack London
Among three possible ways of reproducing actual speech direct one is most frequently used by J. London in the Short Stories. It is far from being standard and imitates the real speech with frequent use of contractions, common language and ellipsis:
"Ye will, will ye?"…
“What d' ye say, Ruth?"…
"No more lunches after to-day," said Malemute Kid.17
Metaphor as a relation between the dictionary and contextual logical meanings based on the affinity or similarity of certain properties or features of the two corresponding concepts helps the author to reproduce the complicated way of life in the North.
J. London’s range of metaphors targeted at portraying a complex perception of the life in the North varies a lot. We can find out quite ordinary metaphors such as heart (=soul, feelings) and peculiar ones:
Malemute Kid smiled with cheery cynicism; but Ruth's eyes were wide with wonder, and with pleasure; for she half believed he was joking, and such condescension pleased her poor woman's heart18.
Happy is the man who can weather a day's travel at the price of silence, and that on a beaten track.19
There was not a sigh of wind. The air was drowsy with its weight of perfume.20
Due to these metaphors the reader sees wind and air as if they were human-beings.
Irony as a stylistic device based on the simultaneous realization of two logical meanings - dictionary and contextual, with the two meanings being in opposition to each other, quite often occurs in the Short Stories just to demonstrate human beings’ weakness and inability to face the difficulties and dangers of life as they really are. In other cases the irony is aimed at death, which does not have to be taken seriously.
It was like taking an anesthetic. Freezing was not so bad a people thought. There were lots worse ways to die.21
In the following example irony is directed to those willing to survive by means of whatever means and tricks.
"Hold, Gowhee! And thou, too, Kah-Chucte! Hath the flour given such strength to thy legs that they may outrun the swift-winged lead? Think not to cheat the law. Be men for the last time, and be content that ye die full-stomached. Come, step up, back to the timber, shoulder to shoulder. Come!"22
The epithets used by J. London in the Short Stories vary a lot as well. We may come across such epithets as “clear conscience”, “white silence”, “painful thoughts”, “stony smile”, “heart-breaking labors” etc., reflecting the necessity to be honest and just, the extraordinary climate conditions, the hard struggle for life and so on.
And of all heart-breaking labors, that of breaking trail is the worst.23
Eppingwell's lips were at last set in a stony smile, and her eyes, seeing, saw not. Often, she stopped, pressing a mittened hand to her heart, gasping and dizzy.24
The afternoon wore on, and with the awe, born of the White Silence, the voiceless travelers bent to their work. Nature has many tricks wherewith she convinces man of his finity, -- the ceaseless flow of the tides, the fury of the storm, the shock of the earthquake, the long roll of heaven's artillery, -- but the most tremendous, the most stupefying of all, is the passive phase of the White Silence.25
The similes used by J. London reproduce the severe life conditions and very peculiar and charming nature of the North.
And far beyond, like clouds upon the border of the sky, towered minarets of white, where the Sierra's eternal snows flashed austerely the blazes of the sun.26
Creamy white were these bells, shaped like lilies-of-the-valley, with the sweetness of perfume that is of the springtime.27
Use of oxymoron is linked as well with the unlikely possibility to survive in so severe frost and far from civilization:
Sitka Charley had achieved the impossible.28
As for some other style features of J. London’s Short Stories we would like to pay attention to rhetorical question used by the author as a form of admiration over those human-beings willing never to surrender or give in on their way to achieving some desired target (gold, love, assistance…).
The sudden danger, the quick death, -- how often had Malemute Kid faced it!29
Periphrases J. London uses are targeted at the struggle for existence and blindness to any dangers or risks, even pain and sufferings as well.