Basics of English Stylistics

МИНИСТЕРСТВО НАУКИ И ВЫСШЕГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ

РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ

Федеральное государственное автономное образовательное

учреждение высшего образования

«ЮЖНЫЙ ФЕДЕРАЛЬНЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ»

Е. С. Милькевич

BASICS OF ENGLISH STYLISTICS

Учебное пособие 

Ростов-на-Дону – Таганрог
Издательство Южного федерального университета
2024

УДК 8111.111`38(075.8)
ББК 81.432.1–5 я73  
       М60

Печатается по решению кафедры лингвистики и профессиональной 
коммуникации Института филологии, журналистики и межкультурной 
коммуникации Южного федерального университета  
(протокол № 10 от 26 мая 2023 г.)

Рецензенты:

профессор кафедры «Интегративная и цифровая лингвистика»  
Донского государственного технического университета,  
доктор филологических наук Е. В. Муругова;

доцент кафедры теории и практики английского языка  
Южного федерального университета,  
кандидат филологических наук Н. А. Ляшенко 

 

Милькевич, Е. С.
Basics of English Stylistics : учебное пособие / Е. С. Милькевич ; Южный федеральный университет. – Ростов-на-Дону ; Таганрог : Издательство Южного федерального университета, 
2024. – 94 с.
ISBN 978-5-9275-4516-2 
Учебное пособие предназначено для студентов, обучающихся по укрупненной группе специальностей и направлений 45.00.00. Языкознание  
и литературоведение (английский язык), в том числе по направлениям 
подготовки бакалавриата 45.03.01. Филология, 45.03.02. Лингвистика  
и специалитета 45.05.01. Перевод и переводоведение. Пособие содержит 
теоретический материал, охватывающий основные разделы стилистики 
современного английского языка. Каждый теоретический раздел содержит вопросы для самопроверки, а также практические задания на закрепление теоретического материала. Учебное пособие использует компетентностный подход, опираясь на компетенции владения английским 
языком уровней C1–C2 согласно общеевропейской шкале CEFR–2018. 
Пособие также содержит глоссарий основных терминов стилистики.
Публикуется в авторской редакции.

УДК 8111.111`38(075.8) 
ББК 81.432.1–5 я73 
ISBN 978-5-9275-4516-2 
 
 
    © Южный федеральный университет, 2024
© Милькевич Е. С., 2024
© Оформление. Макет. Издательство 
Южного федерального университета, 2024

М60

CONTENT

INTRODUCTION..................................................................................... 4

TOPIC I. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ........................................... 6
Questions for self-control .................................................................... 13
Practical tasks ...................................................................................... 13

TOPIC II. STYLISTIC PHONETICS .................................................. 15
Questions for self-control .................................................................... 22
Practical tasks ...................................................................................... 22

TOPIC III. STYLISTIC MORPHOLOGY .......................................... 24
Questions for self-control .................................................................... 29
Practical tasks ...................................................................................... 29

TOPIC IV. LEXICOLOGY ................................................................... 29
Questions for self-control .................................................................... 40
Practical tasks ...................................................................................... 41
The Analysis of Poetry ........................................................................ 44

TOPIC V. STYLISTIC SYNTAX .......................................................... 46
Questions for self-control .................................................................... 56
Practical tasks ...................................................................................... 56

TOPIC VI. STYLISTIC SEMASIOLOGY .......................................... 59
Questions for self-control .................................................................... 72
Practical tasks ...................................................................................... 72

GENERAL PRACTICE ......................................................................... 74
Examples of Lexical Stylistic Devices and Expressive Means ........... 74
Examples of Syntactical Stylistic Devices and Expressive Means ..... 76

THE SCHEME OF THE ANALYSIS OF EMOTIVE PROSE .......... 77
Text Analysis 1 .................................................................................... 79
Text Analysis 2 .................................................................................... 79

SEMINARS ............................................................................................. 81

EXAM QUESTIONS .............................................................................. 86

GLOSSARY ............................................................................................. 88

REFERENCES ........................................................................................ 91

INTRODUCTION

The course of Stylistics of the English Language is the basic course 
which is obligatory for language students of the Bachelor’s Degree 
Programmes in Linguistics or Foreign Philology. The course helps to 
form the following competences of “Common European Framework 
of Reference for Languages: learning, teaching, assessment”, reissued  
in 2018:
Reception (oral comprehension, C2) – ‘Can understand with ease 
virtually any kind of language, whether live or broadcast, delivered at fast 
natural speed’.
Reception (audio–visual comprehension, while watching TV, film 
and video, C1) – ‘Can understand nuances and implied meaning in most 
films, plays and TV programmes, provided these are delivered in standard 
language or a familiar variety’.
Reception (reading comprehension, C2) – ‘Can understand a wide 
range of long and complex texts, appreciating subtle distinctions of style 
and implicit as well as explicit meaning’.
Production (oral production, C2) – ‘Can produce clear, smoothly 
flowing, well–structured discourse with an effective logical structure which 
helps the recipient to notice and remember significant points’.
Production (written production, C2) – ‘Can produce clear, smoothly 
flowing, complex texts in an appropriate and effective style and a logical 
structure which helps the reader identify significant points’.
Interaction (oral communication, C2) – ‘Has a good command of 
idiomatic expressions and colloquialisms with awareness of connotative 
levels of meaning. Can convey finer shades of meaning precisely by 
using, with reasonable accuracy, a wide range of modification devices. 
Can backtrack and restructure around a difficulty so smoothly that the 
interlocutor is hardly aware of it’.
Interaction (written correspondence, C2) – ‘Can express themselves in 
an appropriate tone and style in virtually any type of formal and informal 
interaction’.
Mediation (analysis and critical thinking, C2) – ‘Can recognise 
the finer subtleties of nuanced language, rhetorical effect and stylistic 

INTRODUCTION

language use (e.g. metaphors, abnormal syntax, ambiguity), interpreting 
and “unpacking” meanings and connotations. Can critically evaluate the 
way in which structure, language and rhetorical devices are exploited in 
a work for a particular purpose and give a reasoned argument concerning 
their appropriateness and effectiveness’.
Linguistic competence C1–C2 – ‘Can exploit a comprehensive and 
reliable mastery of a very wide range of language to formulate thoughts 
precisely, give emphasis, differentiate and eliminate ambiguity. No signs 
of having to restrict what they want to say’.
Sociolinguistic competence C1–C2 – ‘Has a good command of 
idiomatic expressions and colloquialisms with awareness of connotative 
levels of meaning’.
Pragmatic competence C1–C2 – ‘Can make a positive impact on an 
intended audience by effectively varying style of expression and sentence 
length, use of advanced vocabulary and word order’ [3].

The Objectives of the course

The course of Stylistics is the final part of Linguistics studied at the 
Bachelor’s Degree Programmes. It sets the following objectives for the 
undergraduate students:
to enable students to differentiate functional styles both in written and 
oral varieties of the language;
to develop abilities to recognise and explain stylistic devices and 
expressive means;
to give students understanding of specific sets of language regularities 
peculiar to a definite style.
Moreover, for prospect translators and interpreters there are further 
objectives:
to develop and train skills to identify a style when you hear or read it;
to single out all the peculiarities typical for the style;
to interpret the functions of stylistic devices and expressive means and 
find adequate verbal means in the language of translation, at best guided by 
language intuition;

TOPIC I. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

to translate the given text accordingly, preserving all the norms and 
regularities of the style in the original text;
to acquire necessary skills and competences in using various types of 
speech in written or oral forms.

The Skills required by the Students

With the help of Stylistics students will be able to understand more, 
to see more information both factual and emotional, explicit and implicit. 
In fiction this understanding is vital because it will disclose the author’s 
individual style, his idiosyncrasy and aesthetic value of the text. Stylistic 
competences for interpreting are necessary for mastering the English 
language at levels C1–C2. 

TOPIC I. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

The academic course of Stylistics of the English Language crowns 
the study of linguistics. It comprises the knowledge of previously studied 
language disciplines.

The Subject–Matter of Stylistics

The linguistic problems discussed by Stylistics are diverse and are  
connected with the following fields of research:
1. The aesthetic function of the language.
2. Expressive Means of the language.
3. Synonymous ways of rendering one and the same idea.
4. Emotional colouring of the language.
5. A special system of stylistic devices.
6. The splitting of the literary language into separate sub–systems, 
called functional styles.
7. The interrelation between language and thought.
8. The author’s individual manner in using the language for creati- 
vity.

TOPIC I. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

Now we will see each of the issues above separately. The stylistic 
aspects enumerated disclose only a part of the whole scientific domain  
of Stylistics.
1. Stylistics is connected with the aesthetic function of the 
language. Aesthetics in general is an ability to understand beauty. It 
follows, that aesthetical function can refer to the works of poetry and 
imaginative prose, belle-letter style. But Stylistics also studies the texts 
of official documents, diplomacy, technical documentations, commercial 
correspondence, science, all of which devoid that function. They have 
no aesthetic value and their aim is not to satisfy human’s striving for  
beauty.
2. Expressive means (further abbreviated as EMs) are employed in 
types of speech which aim at impressing the audience. They are public 
speeches, poetry, oratory, fiction, colloquial speech, etc. But again, hardly 
ever technology, science, business or official documentation. So, EMs are 
studied by Stylistics but only partially.
3. The question of choosing adequate language is connected with 
synonymous ways of expression. From Lexicology we know that the 
language does not have absolute synonyms. We admit it only because we 
do not know enough to differentiate synonymous words. If the forms of the 
words are different (spelling, pronunciation) these words are bound to be 
different semantically. 
4. Texts can have emotional colouring but partially. A poetic declaration 
of deep emotions or political oratory should be emotional according to their 
purpose. On the other hand, there are a lot of texts without emotiveness 
in them, they are quite unemotional or neutral, e.g., technical or official 
texts. Even without emotional colouring they are still the subject-matter of 
Stylistics as a language science [7, p. 6–36].
Thus, the cursory discussion of some stylistic issues demonstrate that 
we cannot limit the scope of Stylistic interest to one particular field of 
research [1, с. 88–97].
Stylistics is defined as a branch of linguistics which studies language 
styles (literal, functional), their stylistic devices and expressive  
means [4, p. 9].

TOPIC I. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

As the term implies, Stylistics deals with styles. Style for its part can be 
defined as a set of specific or peculiar features of a text, which differentiate 
a group of homogeneous texts from the other groups of texts. 
All speech activities, both oral and written, are divided by researchers 
into a number of groups or styles. The most well-known classifications 
of styles in the English Language are suggested by I. V. Arnold and  
I. R. Galperin.
I.V. Arnold includes four styles in her classification: poetic, scientific, 
newspaper and colloquial. Each of them is further subdivided into substyles 
or registers [1, с. 320].
I. R. Galperin proposes another classification which distinguishes five 
styles in English: belles-lettres, publicistic, newspaper, scientific prose and 
style of official documents [4, p. 249].
These two acknowledged classifications have their problematic points, 
such as the status of colloquial spontaneous speech, the style of official 
documentation, the style of journalistic articles, etc. 
Modern times have caused the emergence of new styles or substyles  
of mass media: the language of social networks, which can differ from site 
to site.
Moreover, in everyday communication we can speak about the style of 
a particular novel, the style of a writer or somebody’s style, etc.
Notwithstanding various classes of styles, for the convenience of 
further discussion, we accept the classification of styles suggested by  
I. R. Galperin.
In general, a language style possesses particular features: sets of words 
or word combinations, sentence patterns and text structures. 
Let us start with words or the vocabulary of the language. The idea 
of stylistic stratification of vocabulary is based on heterogeneity of the 
language units. It depends upon various language functions of lexemes. 
It turns out that language units can be restricted to a definite sphere of 
communication or specific types of speech. Let us compare several groups 
of isolated words:
a) very, water, how, go – unites words which can be used in any style of 
communication, in any situation, thus neutral words;

TOPIC I. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

b) mummy, chap, Bob, wow – comprises colloquial words, which are 
predominantly used in informal speech but never in a formal situation;
c) hereof, aforecited, whereupon – consists of words employed in 
official texts and documents, they sound archaic and old–fashioned;
d) grub, sawbones, corking, oof – exemplifies slang words, which are 
considered to be stylistically lower than colloquialisms. We feel a strong 
note of familiarity or rudeness when using them;
e) sylvan, ne’er, morn– are high–flown words which are typical for 
poetry but rarely used in a more straightforward way;
f) proverbialism, commencement, corroborate – they are more complex 
to define. In general, they are called bookish or learned words, because 
these lexemes tend to be used in educated cultured speech only. In every 
day relaxed communication, they would sound wrongly–placed;
g) cosine, protoplasm, phonemic, introvert – comprises a group of 
special scientific terms used only in science: trigonometry, biology, 
phonology and psychology respectively. 
This cursory enumeration of word classes proves the diverse character of 
the English Lexicon. Some groups of the words mentioned are incompatible 
with one another. For example, poetic and bookish words cannot be used 
together with slang or colloquial words. On the contrary, the first group 
of neutral words can be easily combined with any of the others. To sum 
up, we can state that the English vocabulary system is a set of intersecting 
subsystems.
Now, let us move on to sentence patterns. Compare the following 
sentences rendering denotatively the same idea:
a) Never seen the chap, not I!
b) Me, I never clapped eyes on this here guy.
c) I deny the fact of ever having seen this person.
d) I have no association with the appearance of the individual I be- 
hold.
e) I have certainly never seen the man [7, p. 11].
The colloquial style of sentence a) is clearly seen in the choice of words 
(chap); in syntax (the appended statement not I, the absence of subject I 
and the auxiliary verb have). 

TOPIC I. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

In sentence b) the low colloquial style is reflected in the vocabulary guy, 
the inversion of here, the metaphor clap eyes, the tautology of the subject 
me in the objective case.
Sentence c) illustrates the official bookish manner of speaking, typical, 
for example, of the law enforcement sphere of communication: the words 
deny, the fact, person; perfect gerund having seen.
Finally, sentence d) shows a high–flown, pompous manner of speaking, 
which is achieved by the lexemes have no association, appearance, 
individual, behold; complex sentence and an attributive group.
On the whole, whatever text we come to analyse we can find in it 
linguistic units, both lexical and grammatical / syntactical, that can be used 
in any discourse. They are called non–specific or neutral units. There is a 
second group of language units that can be found only in specific texts but 
are easily understood by non–specialists. They are called relatively specific 
units. Finally, there are units (words, word combination, grammatical 
forms, sentence structures) that belong exclusively to a narrow group of 
texts, then they are absolutely specific units.
Let us again turn to the examples of separate lexemes a–g mentioned 
above. Group a) is used very frequently with no social restrictions, every 
English-speaking person can understand them, so they are neutral units. In 
group f) corroborate, commencement, statement, figurative, differentiation, 
we observe that they are hardly ever used in our everyday discourse and 
most of them can be difficult to understand for a child or an illiterate 
person. These words are considered to be partially limited or relatively 
specific. We cannot limit them to a particular text but rather to a general 
sphere of bookish texts. They can occur in various spheres of professional 
communication: medicine, criminology, mathematics, banking, military 
matters, etc. By absolutely specific units we understand those belonging 
to a singular sphere of communication. They are the words from groups  
c), d), e), g). 
The distinction of three groups of units (neutral, relatively specific, 
absolutely specific) refers not only to words but to all other types of 
language units. Thus, the morphemes un-, in-, -ful, -less are non–specific or 
neutral; whereas supra-, quasi- are bookish and specific. The same is true