The Connection between Parts of the Sentence
There are two polar types of syntactic connection in the sentence: subject-predicate relation and secondary relation, i.e. relations between secondary parts of a sentence. The subject-predicate relation serves to convey a piece of information, to inform the hearer about something. The secondary parts of the sentence make, together with their head-words, mere word-combinations, i.e. composite denominations, functionally equivalent to simple words.
Between the two polar types of syntactical connection there exists an intermediate type - a semi-predicative connection which occurs when a secondary part of the sentence becomes «detached».
Detachment means that a secondary member a) becomes phonetically separated, b) obtains emphatic stress, c) sometimes, though not necessarily, changes its habitual position. This secondary part of the sentence, remaining what it has been (an attribute, an adverbial modifier, etc.), at the same time assumes the function of an additional predicative; it comes to resemble the predicate.
Detachment makes the word prominent. Thus, from the point of view of stylistics, detachment is nothing but emphasis.
Theoretically, any secondary part of the sentence can be detached:
«Smither should choose it for her at the stores - nice and dappled» (Galsworthy) - detachment of the attribute.
«Talent, Mr.Micawber has, capital, Mr. Micawber has not» (Dickens) - detachment of the direct object.
Parenthetic Elements, i.e. words, phrases and clauses disconnected grammatically with their syntactical surroundings, also possess stylistic value. Parenthesis may perform the following stylistic functions:
to reproduce two parallel lines of thought, two different planes of narration (in the author’s speech), e.g.:
«...he was struck by the thought (what devil’s whisper? - what evil hint of an evil spirit?) - supposing that he and Roberta - no, say he and Sondra - (no, Sondra could swim so well and so could he) - he and Roberta were in a small boat somewhere...» (Dreiser);
to make the sentence or clause more conspicuous, more emphatic, e.g.:
«The main entrance (he had never ventured to look beyond that) was a splendiferous combination of a glass and iron awning...» (Dreiser);
to strengthen the emotional force by making part of the utterance interrogative or exclamatory, e.g.:
«Here is a long passage - what an enormous prospective I make of it! - leading from Peggoty’s kitchen to the front door» (Dickens);
to avoid monotonous repetition of similar constructions;
to impart colloquial character to the author’s narration.
Revaluation of Syntactical Categories
Revaluation of syntactical categories means the use of certain syntactical categories or forms of their expression with their meanings transferred. Thus, a statement which is usually given the form of a declarative sentence may be expressed by means of interrogative sentence; several kinds of sentence patterns may express negation, although they do not contain any grammatical devices of negation (the negative particle or negative pronouns).
Rhetorical question is an affirmative or negative statement which only assumes the form of a question. The use of the interrogative form performs an expressive function since it implies direct appellation to the hearer’s opinion. The speaker never doubts what kind of answer to his question can be expected, and the conclusion is left with the hearer:
If this belief from heaven be sent,
If such be Nature’s holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has done of man?
(Wordsworth)
EXERCISES
Exercise 1. State the type of each syntactical expressive means in the following cases:
KEITH (letting go her arms): My God! If the police come 0 find me here - (He dashes to the door. Then stops) (Galsworthy).
He notices a slight stain on the window-side rug. He cannot change it with the other rug, they are a different size (Christie).
You would get a scaffolding pole entangled, you would... (Jerome).
And only one thing really troubled him, sitting there - the melancholy craving in his heart - because the sun was like enchantment on his face and on the clouds and on the golden birch leaves, and the wind’s rustle was so gentle, and the yew-tree green so dark, and the sickle of a moon pale in the sky (Galsworthy).
I return it, but should you think fit to invest it for the benefit of the little chap (we call him Jolly) who bears our Christian and, by courtesy, our surname, I shall be very glad (Galsworthy).
I love my Love, and my Love loves me! (Coleridge).
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor/ Shall be lifted - nevermore! (Poe).
Down came the storm, and smote again/ The vessel in its strength... (Longfellow).
I went to Oxford as one goes into exile; she to London (Wells).
Well, Judge Thatcher, he took it [the money] and put it out at interest... (Twain).
Women are not made for attack. Wait they must (Conrad).
Gentleness in passion! What could have been more seductive to the scared, starved heart of that girl? (Conrad).
A dark gentleman... A very bad manner. In the last degree constrained, reserved, diffident, troubled (Dickens).
She narrowed her eyes a trifle at me and said I looked exactly like Celia Briganza’s boy. Around the mouth (Salinger).
And it was so unlikely that any one would trouble to look there - until - until - well (Dreiser).
...the photograph of Lotta Lindbeck he tore into small bits across and across and across (Ferber).
It was Mr. Squeers’s custom to... make a sort of report... regarding the relations and friends he had seen, the news he had heard, the letters he had brought down, the bills which had been paid, the accounts which had been unpaid, and so forth (Dickens).
His dislike of her grew because he was ashamed of it... Resentment bred shame, and shame in its turn bred more resentment (Huxley).
First the front, then the back, then the sides, then the superscription, then the seal, were objects of Newman’s admiration (Dickens).
I see what you mean. And I want the money. Must have it (Priestley).
Exercise 2. Specify the functions performed by syntactical expressive means in the following examples:
...I’ve done everything for them. They’ve eaten my food and drunk my wine. I’ve run their errands for them. I’ve made their parties for them. I’ve turned myself inside out to do them favours. And what have I got out of it? Nothing, nothing, nothing... (Maugham).
«The result of an upright, sober and godly life», he laughed. «Plenty of work. Plenty of exercise...» (Maugham).
«You have a splendid rank. I don’t want you to have any more rank. It might go to your head. Oh, darling, I’m awfully glad you’re not conceited. I’d have married you even if you were conceited but it’s very restful to have a husband who’s not conceited» (Hemingway).
«I’m serious, y’know», he declared now, with the same dreary solemnity. «I’m not joking. You get me that job out there as soon as you can. I’m serious» (Priestley).
«You are. You are worse than sneaky. You are like snake, A snake with an Italian uniform: with a cape around your neck» (Hemingway).
«I wouldn’t mind him if he wasn’t so conceited and didn’t bore me, and bore me, and bore me» (Hemingway).
I was very angry. «The whole thing is crazy. Down below they blow up a little bridge. Here they leave a bridge on the main road. Where is everybody? Don’t they try and stop them at all?» (Hemingway).
«Isn’t it a grand country? I love the way it feels under my shoes» (Hemingway).
«Never in my life have I faced a sadder duty. It will always be with me» (Dreiser).
«But, Jane, you owe everything to Gilbert», said Mrs. Tower indignantly. «You wouldn’t exist without him. Without him to design your clothes, you’ll be nothing» (Maugham).
In her mother’s lap afterwards Rosemary cried and cried. «I love him, Mother. I’m desperately in love with him - I never knew I could feel that way about anybody. And he’s married and I like her too - it’s just helpless. Oh, I love him so!» (Fitzgerald).
The voice in the hall rose high with annoyance: «Very well, then, I won’t sell you the car at all... I’m under no obligation to you at all... and as for your bothering me about it at lunch time, I won’t stand that at all!» (Fitzgerald).
«No-! No-! Let her go! Let her go, you fool, you fool-!» cried Ursula at the top of her voice, completely outside herself (Lawrence).
«But I will. I’ll say just what you wish and I’ll do what you wish and you will never want any other girls, will you?» She looked at me very happily. «I’ll do what you want and say what you want and then I’ll be a great success, won’t I?» (Hemingway).
«She’s brazen, brazen», burst from Mrs.Davidson. Her anger almost suffocated her (Lawrence).
«Oh, all right». Edna wriggled her shoulders. «Don’t go on and on about it...» (Priestley).
«I wouldn’t have a boy. I mean I always wanted girls. I mean girls have got a lot more zip to them. I mean they’re a lot zippier. But let’s go!» (Lardner).
Five minutes of crashing through a thicket of chaparral brought them to open woods, where the three horses were tied to low-hanging branches. One was waiting for John Big Dog, who would never ride by night or day again. This animal the robbers divested of saddle and bridle and set free.
Exercise 3. Classify the expressive devices based upon absence of logically indispensable syntactical units; specify their functions:
«...What part of the East was you from, any way?» - «New York State», said Shark Dodson... (O’Henry).
«Gar!» said the first man. «Northwestern Mounted Police! That must be a job! A good rifle and a good horse and no closed season on Indians! That’s what I call Sport!» (Reed).
Then somebody I couldn’t see yelled out, so hoarse he couldn’t hardly speak, «Where’d he go?» - «Past the house and out back!» says I, and started to run (Reed).
«I love Nevada. Why, they don’t even have mealtimes here. I never met so many people didn’t own a watch» (Miller).
Pain and discomfort - that was all the future held. And meanwhile ugliness, sickness, fatigue (Huxley).
«What about the gold bracelet she’d been wearing that afternoon, the bracelet he’d never seen before and which she’d slipped off her wrist the moment she realized he was in the room? Had Steve given her that? And if he had...» (Quentin).
With these hurried words, Mr. Bob Sawyer pushed the postboy on one side, jerked his friend into the vehicle, slammed the door, put up the steps, wafered the bill on the street-door, locked it, put the key in his pocket, jumped into the dickey, gave the word for starting... (Dickens).
This story really doesn’t get anywhere at all. The rest of it comes later - sometimes when Piggy asks Dulcie again to dine with him, and she is feeling lonelier than usual, and General Kitchener happens to be looking the other way; and then - (O’Henry).
«Very windy, isn’t it?» said Strachan, when the silence had lashed some time. - «Very», said Wimsey. - «But it’s not raining», pursued Strachan. - «Not yet», said Wimsey. - «Better than yesterday», said Strachan... - «Tons better. Really you know, you’d think they’d turned on the water-works yesterday on purpose to spoil my sketching party». - «Oh, well», said Strachan. - «How long have you been on that?» - «About an hour», said Strachan (Sayers).
Nothing - nothing! Just the scent of camphor, and dust motes in a sunbeam through the fanlight over the door. The little old house! A mausoleum! (Galsworthy).
Students would have no need to «walk the hospitals» if they had me. I was a hospital in myself (Jerome).
She possessed two false teeth and a sympathetic heart (O’Henry).
She had her lunches in the department-store restaurant at a cost of sixty cents for the week; dinners were $ 1.05. The evening papers - show me a New Yorker without his daily paper! - came to six cents; and two Sunday papers - one for the personal column and the other to read - were ten cents. The total amounts to $ 4.76. Now, one had to buy clothes, and - (O’Henry).
There was a whisper in my family that it was love drove him out, and not love of the wife he married (Steinbeck).
Exercise 4. Classify the expressive devices based upon the excess of syntactical units; specify the functions performed by them in the following examples:
...the photograph of Lotta Lindbeck he tore into small bits across and across and across (Ferber).
He sat, still and silent, until his future landlord accepted his proposals and brought writing materials to complete the business. He sat, still and silent, while the landlord wrote (Dickens).
Supposing his head had been held under water for a while. Supposing the first blow had been truer. Supposing he had been shot. Supposing he had been strangled. Supposing this way, that way, the other way. Supposing anything but getting unchained from the one idea for that was inexorably impossible (Dickens).
You know - how brilliant he is, what he should be doing. And it hurts me. It hurts me every day of my life (Deeping).
The whitewashed room was pure while as of old, the methodical book-keeping was in peaceful progress as of old, and some distant howler was hanging against a cell door as of old (Dickens).
He ran away from the battle. He was an ordinary human being that didn’t want to kill or be killed, so he ran away from the battle (Heym).
Failure meant poverty, poverty meant squalor, squalor led, in the final stages, to the smells and stagnation of B. Inn Alley (du Maurier).
And the coach, and the coachman, and the horses, rattled, and jangled, and whipped, and cursed, and swore, and tumbled on together, till they came to Golden Square (Dickens).
I wake up and I’m alone, and I walk round Warley and I’m alone, and I talk with people and I’m alone and I look at his face when I’m home and it’s dead... (Braine).
Bella soaped his face and rubbed his face, and soaped his hands and rubbed his hands, and splashed him, and rinsed him and towered him, until he was as red as beet-root (Dickens).
Exercise 5. Comment on the stylistically relevant syntactical peculiarities in the following abstracts from «Mac-American» by J.Reed:
...Mac looked at me with some distaste. «I’m not a religious man». He spat. «But I don’t go around knocking God. There’s too much risk in it». - «Risk of what?» - «Why, when you die - you know...» Now he was disgusted and angry.
«When I came down to Burlington to work in the lumber mill, I was only a kid about sixteen. My brother had been working there already a year, and he took me up to board at the same house as him. He was four years older than me - a big guy, too; but a little soft... Always kept bulling around about how wrong it was to fight, and that kind of stuff. Never would hit me - even when he got hot at me because he said I was smaller».
«It was a bad fight. He was out to kill me. I tried to kill him, too. A big, red cloud came over me, and I went raging, tearing mad. See this ear?» Mac indicated the stump of the member alluded to. «He did that. I got him in one eye, though, so he never saw again. We soon quit using fists; we scratched. And choked, and bit, and kicked. They say my brother let out a roar like a bull every few minutes, but I just opened my mouth and screamed all the time...».
Exercise 6. Analyze the functions performed by syntactical expressive devices in the following abstracts; state the type of stylistic coloring imparted to the narration by these devices:
The sidewalks ran like Spring ice going out, grinding and hurried and packed close from bank to bank. Ferret-faced slim men, white-faced slim women, gleam of white shirtfronts, silk hats, nodding flowery broad hats, silver veils over dark hair, hard little somber hats with a dab of vermilion, satin slippers, petticoat-edges, patent-leathers, rouge and enamel and patches. Voluptuous exciting perfumes. Whiffs of cigarette smoke caught up to gold radiance, bluely. Cafe and restaurant music scarcely heard, rhythmical. Lights, sound, swift feverish pleasure... First the flood came slowly, then full tide - furs richer than in Russia, silks than the Orient, jewels than Paris, faces and eyes and bodies the desire of the world - then the rapid ebb, and the street-walkers (Reed).
I wandered down the feverish street, checkered with light and shade, crowned with necklaces and pendants and lavaliers and sunbursts of light, littered with rags and papers, torn up for subway construction, patrolled by the pickets of womankind. One tall, thin girl who walked ahead of me I watched. Her face was deadly pale, and her lips like blood. Three times I saw her speak to men - three times edge into their paths, and with a hawklike tilt of her head murmur to them from the corner of her mouth (Reed).
We sat against the wall, watching the flush of faces, the whiteness of slim shoulders, hearing the too loud laughter, smelling cigarette smoke and the odor that is like the taste of too much champagne. Two orchestras brayed, drummed and banged alternately. A dance for the guests - then professional dancers and singers, hitching spasmodically, bawling flatly meaningless words to swift rhythm. Then the lights went out, all except the spot on the performers, and in the drunken dark we kissed hotly. Flash! Lights on again, burst of hard hilarity, whirl of shouting words, words, words, rush of partners to the dance floor, orchestra crashing syncopated breathless idiocy, bodies swaying and jerking in wild unison (Reed).
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