The Ministry of Higher and secondary education of the Republic of Uzbekistan

1.2 Stylistic resources of modern English

The notion of style. The subject of stylistics. Different branches of stylistics. Linguistic stylistics and literary stylistics. Stylistics of the language and stylistics of speech. Stylistics of different layers of a language.

The word “style” originates from the Greek "stylos"(“a pen”) and denotes a good, effective way of expression.

Stylistics is a branch of philology that studies general principles of choice and usage of different expressive means and their effectiveness for communication in different situations.

Stylistics has several branches: stylistics of language (linguo-stylistics), inclusive of functional stylistics and stylistics of speech, inclusive of literary stylistics. Linguo-stylistics studies sublanguages and functional styles, different expressive means and stylistic devices. Stylistics of speech studies real texts in the unity of form and expression, analyzing the way ideas are communicated according to the specific situation.

Stylistics of speech studies texts of all functional styles, while literary stylistics studies only texts belonging to belles-lettres style. Stylistics of speech and literary stylistics as its part deals with whole texts, while linguo-stylistics deals with “elements of style”, “bits and pieces” of texts, that is expressive means and stylistic devices.

Linguo-stylistics: the aim is to study possibilities of expressiveness of language.

Literary stylistics: the aim is to get the ideas of the author.

Stylistic classification of the English vocabulary. Neutral, literary, colloquial layers. Neutrality and stylistic coloring of words.

The vocabulary of any given language can be divided into 3 groups, differing from each other by the sphere of their possible use. The biggest division consists of neutral words, possessing no stylistic connotation and suitable for any communicative situation, two smaller ones are literary and colloquial strata.

When we classify some speech (text) fragment as literary or colloquial it does not mean that all the words constituting it have a corresponding stylistic meaning. More than that: words with a pronounced stylistic connotation are few in any type of discourse, the overwhelming majority of its lexis being neutral. As L.V. Shcherba once said - a stylistically coloured word is like a drop of paint added to a glass of pure water and colouring the whole of it.

Stylistic type of classification divides the word-stock of the English language into three major groups: Neutral words – have universal character; Literary words – have markedly bookish character; Colloquial words – have lively spoken character.

Neutral words form the bulk of the English vocabulary and can be used in both literary and colloquial language. They are also the most productive words and can form new words by shifting in the part of speech or adding an affix to a stem. The neutral vocabulary of the language can be viewed as its invariant. The words of this layer are generally deprived of any concrete associations and refer to the concept directly. At the same time, their synonyms in both colloquial and literary layer assume a far greater degree of concreteness and cause evaluation of the notion in question.

Literary words.The words of this layer are mostly used in a polished speech and writing. They stand in opposition to colloquial units. These words are divided into a lower and an upper ranges. The upper range has the tendency to pass into the layer of the neutral words (common literary words), whereas the words of the lower range are never mixed with other layers (special literary words).

Colloquial words.These words are mainly used in informal spoken language. Like literary words, some of colloquial words approach the neutral bulk of the English language, but have not lost their colloquial character and therefore are easily recognized. They are usually more emotionally coloured than literary words.

Word formation processes and creation of meanings can occur in very many ways so teachers should learn to incorporate these processes to facilitate learning. For instance, language learners normally use compounding as a way of making new meanings from simpler words (free morphemes). For example, waterfall is derived from the free morphemes water and fall. Teachers can therefore contribute towards better and faster second language learning by finding out some of the simpler words that their students know and then teach them how to combine these morphemes to create compounded words .

The same concept can be applied during the process of derivation (where derivation refers to the addition of prefixes like mis- and pre- and suffixes like -less, -able to words) examples of derivation processes include misrepresent, unprepared, meaningless, reliable from represent, prepare, meaning and rely. Teachers need to start working with the simple words that students know and then teach them about the rules applicable in deriving meaning from them. They need to show the interrelationship between the derived words and the simpler ones. For example misrepresent is the opposite of represent and reliable is an adjective used to describe someone who one can rely on.

In derivation, some language learners may utilize their own creative capabilities in order to create meaning. In other words, they can create words that they had never heard before using this methodology. Teachers need to tap into this tendency by looking for ways in which they can encourage spontaneous word derivation. Native and non native speakers can utilize this potential so it is not restricted to just one group Creative word formation can be encouraged through other classroom activities that encourage development of this skill such as through the use of games.

Teachers need to know what students think about the activities, tasks and challenges in their classroom. This is because it is essential for students to fully understand what is expected of them in a linguistics class. Teachers can do this by asking them questions directly in class. Alternatively, they may request students to write journals that cause them to reflect upon their learning within the classroom (Tjeerdsma, 78).

Teachers can also create an environment of cooperation in their classroom by being approachable while at the same time being direct. This would ensure that students are clear about the expectations of the class and they will be better able to communicate clearly .

Communication misunderstandings are often caused by a lack of awareness of the requirements within a class. Some students simply may not know the parameters or standards that will be used to assess them. Therefore, they will take on tasks in the classroom without having a clear cut direction of what is expected of them. This misunderstanding in communication is brought on by the lack of creation of classroom goals .

Alternatively, communication misunderstands may be caused by differing expectations of what a class is all about (Bybee, 35). When students have very divergent views of what a class is all about, they may start conferring with one another and this may lead to further confusion amongst them. Since interpretations of a class can be different, it is always best when teachers know about this and then work towards eliminating those discrepancies.