Phonetic means of rendering ideas, emotions, feelings and images are studied by Phonostylistics. In the written variety of the language a desired stylistic effect can be achieved thanks to a peculiar sound arrangement in words, specific rhythm and rhyme created by different syntactic patterns used. In the oral variety of the language this effect is intensified by the usage of different intonation components (pitch of the voice, melody, stress, tempo, rhythm, etc)
Intonation is the most powerful means of conveying emotionality, for it expresses the speakers attitude to an utterance. Falling tones are used when the speaker is sure of himself or shows superiority complex. Rising tones, however, imply that the speaker is shy, timid or unsure of himself.
Stress (logical & emphatic) is stylistically relevant. Excitement is rendered by emphatic stress, change in the pitch and the range of the voice.
Pause may perform different stylistic functions. It is stylistically loaded when it is suggestive of the emotional state of the speaker. Silence can imply disagreement, disapproval, or that the speaker is confused, surprised, etc. A long pause may show that the person is thinking over the matter. Short frequent pauses render embarrassment or strong excitement. In the line of print the expectation of a pause is shown by dash (-), fullstop (.), suspension marks (), etc.
The authors phonetic means in creating expressiveness and emotional colouring deal with the sound aspect of speech, mainly with the choice of words, their specific arrangement and repetition. All this is studied by Euphony ( ). A significant role in Euphony is played by repetition of certain sounds on which a number of phonetic SDs is based.
Onomatopoeia is a combination of speech-sounds which aims at imitating sounds produced in nature (wind, sea, thunder, etc.), by things (machines and tools), by people (singing, laughter, patter of feet, etc.) and by animals. Combinations of speech sounds of this type will inevitably be associated with whatever produces the natural sound.
There are two types of onomatopoeia:
Direct (which displays itself in words imitating natural sounds) The degree of imitation may be different. Some words at once remind us of things producing sounds, others need our efforts to be decoded.
E.g. ding-dong; buzz; bang, cuckoo; mew, etc.
Indirect (is formed by sounds which make the utterance an echo of its sense). It requires the mention of the thing which is the source of the sound.
E.g. And the s ilken, s ad, un c ertain ru s tling of each purple curtain (E.A. Poe)
Alliteraton is a phonetic SDs which aims at imparting a melodic (or cacophonic) effect to the utterance. The essence of this SD lies in the repetition of similar sounds (consonant sounds in particular) in close succession.
E.g. D eep into the d arkness peering, long I stoo d there won d ering, fearing,
D oubting, d reaming d reams no mortal ever d ared to d ream before. (E.A. Poe)
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Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar terminal sound combinations of words. Rhyming words are generally placed at a regular distance from each other. In verse they are usually placed at the end of the corresponding lines.
Rhyme may be of two types:
Full rhymes (presupposes identity of the vowel sound and the following consonant sounds in a stressed syllable).
E.g. might right; needles heedles, etc
Incomplete rhymes, which may be further divided into:
a) vowel rhymes (the vowels in corresponding words are identical, but the consonants may be different):
E.g. f le sh f re sh p re ss
b) consonant rhymes (consonants are identical, but vowels are different):
E.g. wor th for th; t a l e t oo l; T re bl e t rou bl e
Modifications of rhyming sometimes go so far as to make one word rhyme with a combination of words. Such rhymes are called compound or broken. The peculiarity of this type is that the combination of words is made to sound like one word.
E.g. bottom forgot'em shot him
Another modification of compound rhyme is eye-rhyme, where the letters and not the sounds are identical.
E.g. love prove; flood brood
According to the way the rhymes are arranged within the stanza, certain models have crystallized:
couplets when the last words of two successive lines are rhymed. This is commonly marked aa
triple rhymes aaa
cross rhymes abab
framing or ring rhymes abba
internal rhymes the rhyming words are placed not at the end of the lines, but within the lines
E.g. I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers. (Shelley)
Once upon a midnight dreary while I pondered weak and weary. (Poe)
Rhythm exists in all spheres of human activity and has various forms. It is a deliberate arrangement of speech into regularly recurring units intended to be grasped as a definite periodicity which makes rhythm a SD. Rhythm, therefore, is the main factor which brings order into the utterance. It affects both semantic and structural aspects, because orderly phonetic arrangement of the utterance demands orderly syntactic structures, which, in their turn, suggest an orderly segmenting of the sense-groups.
Rhythm in language demands oppositions: long short; stressed unstressed; high low, etc.
