Сборник практических заданий по стилистике английского языка

А.А. Зарайский
О.Л. Морова
В.Ю. Полякова 

СБОРНИК
ПРАКТИЧЕСКИХ ЗАДАНИЙ

ПО СТИЛИСТИКЕ 

АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА 

Учебное пособие 
для аудиторной и самостоятельной работы
студентов филологических специальностей 

Москва
Издательство «ФЛИНТА»

2021

УДК 811.111’38(076.5)
ББК  81.432.1я73
         З-34

ISBN 978-5-9765-4475-8

Пособие включает четыре раздела и дополнительные упраж
нения. В разделах рассматриваются основные стилистические
приемы, представленные на различных языковых уровнях. Каждый
раздел содержит практическую часть, направленную на закрепление
теоретических положений. Дополнительные упражнения позволяют 
упрочить полученные практические навыки по определению стилистических приемов, выполняемых ими функций и создаваемых ими
стилистических эффектов. Источниками упражнений в практической части пособия послужили произведения классических и современных англоязычных авторов; источниками теоретических 
положений и иллюстративного материала являются интернетресурсы.

Пособие рекомендуется для изучения курса «Стилистика англий
ского языка» студентами филологических специальностей.

УДК 811.111’38(076.5)
ББК  81.432.1я73

ISBN 978-5-9765-4475-8                       © Зарайский А.А., Морова О.Л.,
                                                                    Полякова В.Ю., 2021

© Издательство «ФЛИНТА», 2021

Зарайский А.А.
    Сборник практических заданий по стилистике английского 
языка [Электронный ресурс] : учеб. пособие для аудиторной и 
самостоятельной 
работы 
студентов 
филологических 
специальностей / А.А. Зарайский, О.Л. Морова, В.Ю. Полякова. – 
Москва : ФЛИНТА, 2021. – 200 с.

         
З-34

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

От авторов. Preface ................................................................................................ 4

UNIT 1. PHONETIC AND GRAPHICAL STYLISTIC DEVICES ................. 5 

UNIT 2. LEXICAL STYLISTIC DEVICES ..................................................... 27 

UNIT 3. LEXICAL-SYNTACTICAL STYLISTIC DEVICES ....................... 78 

UNIT 4. SYNTACTICAL STYLISTIC DEVICES ........................................ 101

SUPPLEMENTARY PRACTICE EXERCISES ............................................ 170

INDEX ................................................................................................................. 194

REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 196 

От авторов 

Данное 
учебное 
пособие 
предназначено 
для 
студентов 
филологических 
специальностей. 
Пособие включает четыре раздела и дополнительные упражнения. В данных четырех 
разделах рассматриваются основные стилистические приемы, представленные на 
различных 
языковых 
уровнях. 
Каждый 
раздел 
содержит 
практическую 
часть, 
направленную 
на 
закрепление 
теоретических 
положений. 
Раздел, 
содержащий 
дополнительные упражнения, позволяет упрочить полученные практические навыки по 
определению стилистических приемов, выполняемых ими функций и создаваемых ими 
стилистическими эффектами. Источниками упражнений в практической части пособия 
послужили 
произведения 
классических 
и 
современных 
англоязычных 
авторов; 

источниками теоретических положений и иллюстративного материала являются Интернетресурсы. 
Пособие рекомендуется для изучения курса «Стилистика английского языка» 
студентами филологических специальностей. 
Чрезвычайно ценно, что предложенные в пособии упражнения помогут эффективно 
организовать аудиторную и самостоятельную работу студентов. Занятия по материалам 
настоящего пособия предполагают многоплановую исследовательскую деятельность с 
привлечением дополнительного материала в виде справочных источников и различного 
рода словарей. 

Preface 

The book walks learners through a variety of stylistic devices in literary writings. It makes 
certain that learners will improve their overall knowledge in the theory of stylistic devices. It also 
gives learners an insight into the essential skills and techniques they will need to ensure their ability 
to identify different stylistic devices. 
The book is the perfect blend of explanations and practice to extend learners’ stylistic skills 
and to keep them engaged as it contains a wide range of exercises, which allow them to personalize 
the learning experience with research activities aimed at identifying stylistic devices and defining 
stylistic effect they produce. 
The book offers additional opportunities to develop learners’ confidence in this area of 
stylistics with expert advice and authentic content. 

UNIT 1 

PHONETIC AND GRAPHICAL STYLISTIC DEVICES 

 

Learning objectives: 

 

To identify
phonetic and graphical stylistic devices

To specify
stylistic effect produced

 

The term “stylistic device” describes a technique of language used to direct 

an audience toward a certain perspective. In Russian linguistics this term was coined 
by I. R. Galperin. Stylistic devices are used in language to effectively communicate 
and persuade. They are used to express comparison, add emphasis or clarity, and, 
make the writing or speaking more interesting with the addition of color or freshness. 
In general, they can be defined as simply the art of communicating effectively, which 
has existed for about as long as humans have been able to talk and write. 

This cultivation of persuasion as an art form began in the streets of ancient 

Greece and Rome. Here, citizens of these earliest democracies and republics found 
it necessary to be able to voice their viewpoints effectively to bring about the 
circumstances they desired. For this reason, this kind of art was formalized as an 
educational discipline, with lessons in effectual discourse, which laid the foundation 
of Greco-Roman learning. 

Over time, scientists and practitioners coined and codified a wide assortment 

of special techniques. These stylistic devices, as they have come to be called, were 
identified as particularly useful in grabbing an audience’s attention and directing it 
towards the speaker’s perspectives. Many of these ancient techniques are still in use 
today! 

The use of stylistic devices in literature is simply communication that 

creatively asserts a point of view, imaginatively expresses important ideas, helps 
readers remember key points, and attempts to shift readers’ perspectives. 

These stylistic devices are often used to create fabulous effect in fiction, to 

inject some razzle and dazzle into the writing in case it seems dull and lifeless, as it 
is obvious that a stylistic device cleverly placed keeps the reader interested and 
excited. Stylistic devices can be used in almost any genre including non-fiction and 
blogging. 

Writers can choose from dozens of stylistic devices, which have been 

identified and described over the centuries, as they are all effective and useful 
when employed successfully, and help the writers meet their writing goals. 

All stylistic devices fall into five broad categories in accordance with 

classification suggested by V. A. Kukharenko: 

 
phonetic 

 
graphical 

 
lexical 

 
lexical-syntactical 

 
syntactical. 

These categories are associated with the level of the language structure. The 

following, probably most commonly used stylistic devices represent these 
categories: 

Stylistic Device
Level of the Language Structure

onomatopoeia
alliteration
assonance

phonetic

hyphenation
multiplication
italics
bold font
underlining
capitalization

graphical

metaphor
metonymy
pun
zeugma
irony
antonomasia
epithet
hyperbole
meiosis
oxymoron

lexical

antithesis
climax
anticlimax
simile
litotes
periphrasis

lexical-syntactical

repetition
parallelism
chiasmus
inversion
detachment

syntactical

used in sentences with different

arrangement of the sentence members

ellipsis
nominal sentences
break
polysyndeton
asyndeton
attachment

used in sentences which have

complete or incomplete sentence structure

 

Phonetic stylistic devices are the ones where speech sounds interact with 

each other to produce specific effects: to create a certain acoustic effect, to place 
emphasis to the utterance, to evoke emotions in the reader or the listener. 

Onomatopoeia is a phonetic stylistic device that refers to a word that 

emulates the real-life sound it signifies. Onomatopoeic words imitating sounds 
originate from sounds produced by 

 nature 
 things (machines or tools, etc.) 
 people (sighing, laughter, patter of feet, etc.) 
 animals. 

Most often onomatopoeia appears in poetry to access the reader’s auditory 

sense, to create rich soundscapes, to convey the meaning of the poems and add 
interest to literary works. 
 
Exercise 1. Identify onomatopoeia in the following excerpts and define stylistic 
effect it produces: 
 
1. 
Few people passed. The man out of the last house passed on his way home, 
she heard his footsteps clacking along the concrete pavement and afterwards 
crunching on the cinder path before the new red houses. (J. Joyce, Eveline) 

2. 
Behind us, I heard the plonk plonk of high heels running. I turned around. It 
was Lidewij, her eyeliner running down her cheeks, duly horrified, chasing us 
up the sidewalk. (J. Green, The Fault in Our Stars) 

3. 
There was only one door in and out – the one she’d just come through. But 
the place was moldy, damp, cold…and booby-trapped with cobwebs. Which 
meant sly, predatory spiders. As she tugged the cartons off the shelf, Chloe 
heard a scrape. She froze. Tilted her head. The sound didn’t repeat. But then 
she was aware of another noise. Drip, drip, drip. Was there a leak? The room 
was growing dark…. Closer to the black abyss. Drip, drip, drip…Scream! She 
did. But no sound came from her mouth beyond a hiss, a cricket click, a beetle 
hum. Chloe believed she was falling, over and over. But no pain, no pain at 
all. (J. Deaver, The Skin Collector) 

4. 
And Dr. Macphail watched the rain. It was beginning to get on his nerves… 
It did not pour, it flowed. It was like a deluge from heaven, and it rattled on 

the roof of corrugated iron with a steady persistence that was maddening. It 
seemed to have a fury of its own. (W. S. Maugham, Rain) 

5. 
The boat blew a long mournful whistle into the mist. If she went, tomorrow 
she would be on the sea with Frank, steaming towards Buenos Aires. Their 
passage had been booked. A bell clanged upon her heart. She felt him seize 
her hand: “Come!” (J. Joyce, Eveline) 

6. 
Edward Bear, known to his friends as Winnie-the-Pooh, or Pooh for short, 
was walking through the forest one day, humming proudly to himself. He had 
made up a little hum that very morning, as he was doing his Stoutness 
Exercises in front of the glass: Tra-la-la, tra-la-la, as he stretched up as high 
as he could go, and then Tra-la-la, tra-la – oh, help! – la, as he tried to reach 
his toes. After breakfast he had said it over and over to himself until he had 
learnt it off by heart, and now he was humming it right through, properly. It 
went like this: 
Tra– la-la, tra-la-la, 
Tra– la-la, tra-la-la, 
Rum– tum-tiddle-um-tum. 
Tiddle– iddle, tiddle-iddle, 
Tiddle– iddle, tiddle-iddle, 
Rum– tum-tum-tiddle-um. 
Well, he was humming this hum to himself, and walking along gaily, 
wondering what everybody else was doing, and what it felt like, being 
somebody else, when suddenly he came to a sandy bank, and in the bank was 
a large hole. “Aha!” said Pooh. (Rum-tum-tiddle-um-tum.) “If I know 
anything about anything, that hole means Rabbit,” he said, “and Rabbit means 
Company,” he said, “and Company means Food and Listening-to-MeHumming and such like. Rum-tum-tum-tiddle-um”. (A. A. Milne, WinnieThe-Pooh and All, All, All) 

7. 
The ground was paved with uneven flags, which were covered with cinders, 
scraps of paper and charred fragments of wood and cloth that crunched like 
black gravel beneath her shoes. (A. Taylor, The Ashes of London) 

8. 
I close my eyes and feel myself letting go, like tipping over the edge of an 
abyss, darkness rising up to carry me away…. Bringbringbring. I’m pulled 
back from the edge of sleep and for one horrible second I think: it’s my alarm, 
I’m home, it’s happening again. I strike out, a spasm, and Lindsay yelps, 
“Ow!” The sound of that one word makes my heart go still and my breathing 
return to normal. Bringbringbring. Now that I’m fully alert I realize it’s not 
my alarm. It’s the telephone, ringing shrilly in various rooms, creating a weird 
echo effect. I check the clock. One fifty-two. (L. Oliver, Before I Fall) 

9. 
Not the crackling of the flames, not the explosions and the clatter of falling 
buildings, not the shouting and the endless beating of drums and the groans 
and cries of the crowd… (A. Taylor, The Ashes of London) 

10. 
Hark, hark! 
Bow-wow. 
The watch-dogs bark! 

Bow-wow. 
Hark, hark! I hear 
The strain of strutting chanticleer 
Cry, ‘cock-a-diddle-dow! (W. Shakespeare, The Tempest) 

11. 
He saw nothing and heard nothing but he could feel his heart pounding and 
then he heard the clack on stone and the leaping, dropping clicks of a small 
rock falling. (E. Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls) 

12. 
It went zip when it moved and bop when it stopped, 
And whirr when it stood still. 
I never knew just what it was and I guess I never will. (T. Paxton, The 
Marvelous Toy) 

13. 
The sounds of Barnabas Place settled around her – the creaks, the pattering of 
rodents, the whispering of draughts. The air was stuffy and still very warm. 
(A. Taylor, The Ashes of London) 

14. 
Highfallen House stood on an eminence overlooking the sea. It was a square 
Victorian gentleman’s residence. The large bay windows looked down 
through the pines towards the shore. Six stone steps led the visitor up to the 
double front door where a gothic bell-pull released a loud mournful clang deep 
into the distances of the house. (J. Winterson, Dark Christmas) 

15. 
Soames walked out of the garden door, crossed the lawn, stood on the path 
above the river, turned round and walked back to the garden door, without 
having realised that he had moved. The sound of wheels crunching the drive 
convinced him that time had passed, and the doctor gone. What, exactly, had 
he said? (J. Galsworthy , Birth of a Forsyte) 

16. 
Leaning across the table, he put his hand over hers, and said, without looking 
at her, “Fanny, darling Fanny!” “Oh, George!” It was in that heavenly moment 
that Fanny heard a twing-twing-tootle-tootle, and a light. There’s going to be 
music, she thought, but the music didn’t matter just then. Nothing mattered 
except love. (K. Mansfield, Honeymoon) 

17. 
“Here we left it,” she said. And he added, “Oh, but here too!” “It’s upstairs,” 
she murmured. “And in the garden,” he whispered “Quietly,” they said, “or 
we shall wake them.” (V. Woolf, A Haunted House) 

18. 
For a while now he’d been hearing a peculiar sound. The road rose up a hill, 
and from over that hill came a clip-clop, clip-clop. Along with the clip-clop 
some little tinkle or whistling. Now then. Over the hill came a box on wheels, 
being pulled by two quite small horses. Smaller than the one in the field but 
no end livelier. And in the box sat a half dozen or so little men. All dressed in 
black, with proper black hats on their heads. (A. Munro, Dear Life) 

19. 
A machine roared alive. Alan turned to see a man in a small bulldozer. There 
were two other men nearby. They were about to start work on the nearby 
portion of the promenade. (D. Eggers, A Hologram for the King) 

20. 
His roommate left the doorway and came over, carrying a cup of coffee in one 
hand. He leaned back against the wall again and Jeremy drifted over to the 
window, slurping up his coffee as he went. (A. Tyler, If Morning Ever Comes) 

21. 
No one talks in these factories. Everyone is too busy. The only sounds are the 
snip, snip of scissors and the hum of sewing machines. But I loved that old 
car. I never heard the incessant rattle on a rough road, or the squeakity squeak 
whenever I hit a bump; and as for the squeal of the tires around every corner 
– well, that was macho. (R. A. Harris, Psycology) 

22. 
Alan had been passing through the gates, there was traffic. There were ten 
vehicles in front of the shuttle – SUVs and trucks carrying palm trees, and a 
cement mixer, and a string of taxis and vans. Everyone was honking. (D. 
Eggers, A Hologram for the King) 

 

Alliteration is a phonetic stylistic device in which numerous words 

containing the same first consonant sound, or letter occurs frequently and close 
together. Alliteration allows words and phrases to flow together in a rhythmic, 
musical way that enhances both poetry and prose. Reading alliterative writing aloud 
is more pleasant than reading non-alliterative writing, and may make reading easier 
for the average person in general. Alliteration allows the words to leave the page and 
directly interact with the mind in a synchronous manner. As a result, another sort of 
reading or listening experience singular to alliterative works of art occurs. Enhanced 
flow and beauty merge with prose, poetry, or spoken word when alliteration is used, 
and sounds a writer wishes to convey may also be made present through alliteration. 

Exercise 2. Identify alliteration in the following excerpts and define stylistic effect 
it produces: 
 
1. 
Silly Sally swiftly shooed seven silly sheep. 
The seven silly sheep Silly Sally shooed shilly-shallied south. 
These sheep shouldn’t sleep in a shack; 
Sheep should sleep in a shed. (tongue twister) 

2. 
“... his appearance: something displeasing, something down-right detestable. 
I never saw a man I so disliked and yet I scarce know why. He must be 
deformed somewhere ...” (R. L. Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and 
Mr. Hyde) 

3. 
Behemoth biggest born of earth upheaved 
His vastness: Fleeced the flocks and bleating rose, 
As plants: Ambiguous between sea and land 
The river-horse, and scaly crocodile. (J. Milton, Paradise Lost) 

4. 
How sweet it were,… 
To lend our hearts and spirits wholly 
To the music of mild-minded melancholy; 
To muse and brood and live again in memory. (A. Tennyson, The LotosEaters) 

5. 
We would rather be ruined than changed 
We would rather die in our dread 
Than climb the cross of the moment 
And let our illusions die. (W. H. Auden, The Age of Anxiety) 

6. 
Each of the following words will appear at least once: crime, corruption and 
cronies; bossism, blundering and bungling. (W. Safire. Political Sciences) 

7. 
It was the meanest moment of eternity. (Z. N. Hurston, Their Eyes Were 
Watching God) 

8. 
Tord Schultz sighed. He had avoided making serious errors, the organisation 
took care of him. He was too old for them to do anything else to him but rant 
and rave. (J. Nesbo, Phantom) 

9. 
She liked the quarters: big old-fashioned houses in front of which the long 
stretch of green sloped down to the river. There was something peculiarly 
restful in the spaciousness and stability, a place which the disagreeable or 
distressing things of life could not invade. Most of the women were away, 
which was the real godsend, for the dreariness and desolation of pleasure 
would be eliminated. A quiet post was charming until it tried to be gay – so 
mused Miss Katherine Wayneworth Jones. (S. Glaspell, The Visioning) 

10. 
I wondered why love is so hard and life is so short. I went to bed. The room 
was warmer now and I was ready to sleep. The sound of the sea ebbed into 
the flow of my dreams. I woke from a dead sleep in dead darkness to hear… 
what? What can I hear? (J. Winterson, Dark Christmas) 

11. 
Closed my lids, and kept them close, 
And the balls like pulses beat; 
For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky 
Lay like a load on my weary eye, 
And the dead were at my feet (E. A. Poe, The Raven) 

12. 
The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, 
The furrow followed free; 
We were the first that ever burst 
Into that silent sea. 
Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, 
‘Twas sad as sad could be; 
And we did speak only to break 
The silence of the sea! 
(S. T. Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner) 

13. 
In a summer season when soft was the sun, 
I clothed myself in a cloak as I shepherd were, 
Habit like a hermit’s unholy in works, 
And went wide in the world wonders to hear. 
But on a May morning on Malvern hills, 
A marvel befell me of fairy, me thought. 
I was weary of wandering and went me to rest 
Under a broad bank by a brook’s side, 
And as I lay and leaned over and looked into the waters 
I fell into a sleep for it sounded so merry. 
(W. Langland, The Vision Concerning Piers Plowman) 

14. 
I have looked down the saddest city lane. 
I have passed by the watchman on his beat