Foregrounding. Lecture 3

The ability of a verbal element to obtain extra significance, to

A contextually foregrounded element carries more information than when taken in

Stylistic analysis involves rather subtle procedures of finding the foregrounded element

Foregrounding refers to a form of textual patterning which is motivated

That means that foregrounding comes in two main forms: foregrounding as

Whether the foregrounded pattern deviates from a norm, or whether it

Furthermore, this salience is motivated purely by literary considerations and as

MORPHOLOGICAL LEVEL

The basic unit of this is a morpheme. We shall

Morphemic Repetition.

One important way of promoting a morpheme is its repetition.

1.She unchained, unbolted and unlocked the door.
2.It was there again,

Extension of Morphemic Valency  

The second, even more effective way of using

Very often occasional words are the result of morphemic repetition. Cf.:

The girls could not take off their panama hats because this

The languages created for fictional worlds. 

The Fantasy Languages
Quenya
That shouldn’t come as

Main real-world influences: Finnish, but also Latin, Greek and other languages.
Sample

Sample phrases:
NuqneH. Hello. 
Dothraki
The most well-developed of the languages constructed for the Game

Main real-world influences:  Turkish, Russian, Estonian, and Swahili.
Sample phrases:
M’athchomaroon! Hello, or more

LEXICAL LEVEL
Word and its Semantic Structure
DIMENSIONS OF MEANING

Semantic structure of a word is constituted of various types of

We need to draw a distinction between reference and denotation. Reference

Reference is the way speakers and hearers use an expression successfully;

Connotational meanings

The word dog has a certain denotation, the possibility of

A denotation identifies the central aspect of word meaning, which everybody

Languages provide means of expressing different attitudes. The referring expressions that

The expression of attitudes can be quite subtle. We choose to

1. It might seem that any name would be appropriate as

Why is Caterpillar a good name for an earth-moving tractor but

Give an example of a possible name for a men’s cologne

The number, importance and the overlapping character of connotational meanings incorporated

More than that: each context does not only specify the existing

1. His face is red at first and then it goes

4. "I've no need to change or anything then." "No, just

Stylistic Differentiation of the Vocabulary:
Literary Stratum of Words. Colloquial Words

The word-stock of any given language can be roughly divided into

Literary words serve to satisfy communicative demands of official, scientific, poetic

When we classify some speech (text) fragment as literary or colloquial

Neither of the two named groups of words, possessing a stylistic

Among special literary words, two major subgroups are mentioned. They are:
1.

Literary Words

In some contexts, you may wish to use a less

Literary words, both general and special, contribute to the message the

Colloquial words, on the contrary, mark the message as informal, non-official,

1. Slang forms the biggest one. Slang words, used by most

The substandard status of slang words and phrases, through universal usage,

2. Jargonisms stand close to slang, also being substandard, expressive and

From all the examples at least two points are evident: professionalisms

Jargonisms proper are characterized by similar linguistic features, but differ in

Anglo-American tradition, starting with E. Partridge, a famous English lexicographer, does