XIII Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2021

Every syntactical structure has its definite function, which is sometimes called its structural meaning. When a structure is used in some other function it may be said to assume a new meaning which is similar to lexical transferred meaning.

Among syntactical stylistic devices there are two in which this transference of structural meaning is to be seen. They are rhetorical questions and litotes. Let's take a closer look at them.

The rhetorical question

The rhetorical question - a special syntactical stylistic device the essence of which consists in reshaping the grammatical meaning of the interrogative sentence. In this case, an interrogative sentence turns into an affirmative one, expressed using a question.

Thus, we can distinguish the interaction of two structural meanings that materialize simultaneously:

I) the meaning of the question

2) the meaning of the statement (affirmative or negative).

Examples:

“Are ikese the remedies for a starving and desperate populace?”

“Is there not blood enough upon your penal code, that more must be poured forth to ascend to Heaven and testify against you?” (Byron)

From these examples we can see that rhetorical questions are generally structurally embodied in complex sentences with the subordinate clause containing the pronouncement.

The subordinate clause, as it were, signalizes the rhetorical question. Without the attributive clause the rhetorical question would lose its specific quality and might be regarded as an ordinary question. The subordinate clause, as it were, signalizes the rhetorical question

There are various nuances of emotive meaning embodied in question-sentences. As utterances in the form of questions rhetorical questions can express:

The form of questions which pronounce judgements;

Various kinds of modal shades of meaning, as doubt, challenge, scorn, irony and so on;

Categorical pronouncements;

Emotions and feelings of speaker.

Rhetorical questions, due to their power of expressing a variety of modal shades of meaning, are most often used in publicistic style and particularly in oratory, where the rousing of emotions is the effect generally aimed at.

Litotes

Litotes – stylistic device consisting of a peculiar use of negative constructions. The negation plus noun or adjective serves to establish a positive feature in a person or thing. This positive feature, however, is diminished in quality as compared with a synonymous expression making a straightforward assertion of the positive feature. Lets compare the following two pairs of sentences:

It’s not a bad thing. = It’s a good thing.

He is no coward. = He is a brave man.

“Not bad” is not equal to “good” although the two constructions are synonymous. The same can be said about the second pair, “no coward” and “a brave man”. In both cases the negative construction is weaker than the affirmative one. Still we cannot say that the two negative constructions produce a lesser effect than the corresponding affirmative ones, just on the contrary.

Litotes is a deliberate understatement used to produce a stylistic effect. It is not a pure negation, but a negation that includes affirmation. Therefore here, as in the case of rhetorical questions, we may speak of transference of meaning, i. e. a device with the help of which two meanings are materialized simultaneously: the direct (negative) and transferred (affirmative)

The stylistic effect of litotes depends mainly on intonation.If we compare two intonation patterns, one which suggests a mere denfaf (It is not bad as a contrary to It is bad) with the other which suggests the assertion of a positive quality of the object (It is not bad=it is good), the difference will become apparent

Litotes is used in different styles of speech, excluding those which may be called the matter-of-fact styles, like official style and scientific prose.

List of references:

Galperin I.R. Stylistics. M.: Higher School, 1977: 333 р.

Galperin I.R. English Stylistics. Moscow: USSR, 2014. 333 p.

Sachkova E.V. Lectures on English Stylistics: Учебноепособие. - М.: МИИТ, 2012. - 94 с.

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