5. Stylistic study of the syntax

One of the most prominent places among the SDs dealing with the arrangement of the members of the sentence belongs to repetition. We have already seen the repetition of a phoneme (as in alliteration), of a morpheme (as in rhyming or plain morpheme repetition). As a syntactical SD repetition is recurrence of the same word, word combination, phrase for two or more times.

According to the place occupied by the repeated unit in a sentence (utterance), repetition is classified into several types:

1. anaphora: the beginning of two or more successive sentences (clauses) is repeated – a…, a…, a… . The main stylistic function is to create the background for the non-repeated unit, which, through its novelty, becomes foregrounded.

2. epiphora: the end of the successive sentences (clauses) is repeated - …a, …a, …a. The main stylistic function is to add stress to the final words of the sentence.

3. framing: the beginning of the sentence is repeated in the end, thus forming the “frame” for the non-repeated part of the sentence (utterance) – a…a. The main stylistic function is to elucidate the notion mentioned in the beginning of the sentence.

4. catch repetition (anadiplosis): the end of the clause (sentence) is repeated in the beginning of the following one – ...a, a….

5. chain repetition presents several successive anadiploses (from Greek ‘doubling) - …a, a…b, b…c, c… . The effect is that of the smoothly developing logical reasoning.

6. ordinary repetition has no definite place in the sentence and the repeated unit occurs in various position - …a, …a…, a… . Ordinary repetition emphasizes both the logical and the emotional meanings of the reiterated word (phrase).

7. successive repetition is a string of closely following each other reiterated units - …a, a, a…. This is the most emphatic type of repetition that signifies the peak of emotions of the speaker.

Syntactical tautology or prolepsis implies recurrence of the noun subject in the form of the corresponding personal pronoun: Miss Tillie, she slept forty days and nights without waking up.

Repetition is a powerful means of emphasis. It adds rhythm and balance to the utterance. The latter is the major one in parallel constructions that may be viewed as a purely syntactical type of repetition. Reversed parallelism is called chiasmus (from the letter X – means crossing): He stood up and down sat she. The second part of a chiasmus is inversion of the first construction. Thus, the first sentence (clause) has a direct word order – SPO, the second one has it inverted – OPS.

Inversion can be partial or complete. If the direct word order is changed completely so that the predicate (predicative) precedes the subject we speak about complete inversion. If the object precedes the subject-predicate pair we mean partial inversion.

Suspense is a deliberate postponement of the completion of the sentence. To hold the reader in suspense means to keep the final solution just out of sight introducing less important facts and details first, while the expected information of major importance is reserved till the end of the sentence. Detective and adventure stories are examples of suspense fiction.

A specific arrangement of sentence members is observed in detachment. It is a SD based on singling out a secondary member of the sentence with the help of punctuation (intonation). Secondary members obtain their own stress and intonation because they are detached from the rest of the sentence by commas, dashes or even a full stop: “I have to beg you for money. Daily.”

Ellipsis is deliberate omission of at least one member of the sentence. It is mainly used in dialogue with the main function of achieving the authenticity of dialogue. Ellipsis is the basis of the so-called telegraphic style, in which connectives and redundant words are left out. The biggest contributors to the telegraphic style are one-member sentences. One-word sentences possess a very strong emphatic impact, for their only word obtains both the word and the sentence stress.

Apokoinu constructions have the omission of the pronominal (adverbial) connectives that creates a blend of the main and the subordinate clauses so that the predicative or the object of the first one is simultaneously used as the subject of the second one: “There was a door led into the kitchen.”

Break (aposiopesis) is the result of the speaker’s uncertainty or imitation of spontaneous oral speech or the desire to cut short the information with which the sentence began. To mark the break, dashes and dots are used.

Enumeration is a SD in which separate things, properties or actions brought together and form a chain of grammatically and semantically homogeneous parts of the utterance: She wasn’t sure of anything and more, of him, herself, their friends, her work, her future.

Syntactically antithesis can be a case of parallel construction, but the two parts of it must be semantically opposite to each other: the age of wisdom, the age of foolishness is an antithesis.

In climax each next word combination (clause, sentence) is logically more important and emotionally more powerful: There were hundreds of houses, thousands of stairs, innumerable kitchens.

Anticlimax is an unexpected turn of the thought that defeats expectations of the reader (listener) and ends in complete semantic reversal of the emphasized idea. Anticlimax consists in arranging the utterance so that each subsequent component of it decreases significance, importance and emotional tension of narration: If his eyes fill with tears, you may have no doubt: he has been eating raw onions. Climax and anticlimax may be combined.

Periphrasis denotes the use of a longer phrasing in place of a possible shorter and plainer form of expression (according to Webster’s dictionary). So periphrasis consists of using a more or less complicated syntactical structure instead of a word: love = the most pardonable of human weaknesses.

Euphemism is a variety of periphrasis. It is a word or phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by a more acceptable one: to pass away, to join the majority (to die).

Disphemisms are rough, rude and impolite words (word-combinations). They help to express negative emotions: irritation, hate, scorn, mockery: to kick the bucket (to die).