Popular language as a free and easy every-day speech

2. Popular language as a free and easy every-day speech

Acceding to Table 12 «Transposition with functional-stylistic characters» the next aspect of our analysis is «Popular language as a free-and-easy every-day speech».

I.V. Arnold writes in her monograph that authors use this phenomenon for stylistic purposes: to portray the story-teller or hero (personage) when their stories are about past events [4; 156].

Ain’t is a nonstandard contraction commonly (esp in AmE) in place of am not, is not, are not, have not. Aren’t I is widely used, especially in BrE, whereas ain’t I, usually considered nonstandard, is somewhat more current in AmE. Amn’t I is mainly Scottish and Irish.

e.g. «Dear Mr. Pascoe,

Cambridge! St Godric’s College! The Quaestor’s Lodging!

Ain’t I the swell then? Ain’t Home Office commercial for the rehabilitating power of the British penal system?» [Hill Reginal; 1; 13].

There are some illustrations from M. Twain:

e.g. «You don’t know about me, without you have read a book by name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but that ain’t no matter…» [10; 21].

e.g. «Stuff! Stealing cattle and such things ain’t robbery, it’s burglaty», says Tom Sawyer. «We ain’t burglars. That ain’t no sort of style…» [10; 21].

e.g. «Well, I knows what I’s gwyne to set down here and listen tell I hears it agin» [10, p. 17].

e.g. «Why couldn’t you said that before?» [10; 22].

e.g. «You git me that money to-morrow- I want it.

– I hain’t dot no money.

– It’s a lie. Judge Thatcher’s got it. You git it. I want it.

– I hain’t got no money, I tell you…» [10; 35].

Note: hain’t = h a v e n o t, h a s n o t.

e.g. «It ain’t my fault I warn’t born a duke, it ain’t your fault you warn’t born a king – so what’s the use to worry?…» [10; 150].

e.g. «The duke done (has done) it, and Jim and me was (sing) pretty glad to see it» [10; 150].

Note: warn’t = will not in the past tense.

e.g. «So, things I, I’ll go and search them (?) rooms… But I see I couldn’t do nothing without a candle, and I dasn’t light one, of course» [10, p. 207].

Ch. Dickens used a lot of the some examples in his novel «Our Mutual Friend»

e.g. «But what you may call the Fates ordered him into it again? Which is rumness, ain’t?…» [5; 422].

e.g. «Mr Riderhood next demands his shirt; and draws it on over his head (with his daughter’s help), exactly as if he had just had a Fight. – «Warn’t it steamer?» he pauses to ask her. – «Yes, father». [5; 424].

e.g. «– Hear me out! «cried Wegg.» – I knew you was a – going to say so. But along I bore the anxiety, and alone I’ll bear the blame!»… [5; 468].

All these quotations present themselves the low colloquial sublanguage. These dialogues (above) may not be exactly like others. Writers prefer to paint their personages in words. A detailed analysis of these non-grammatical speech patterns show that they are elements of a system, which is not deprived of rationality. Substandard English is used by millions of people in English speaking counties. It is a conspicuous indicator of low language culture and educational level. Being introduced into books, it becomes a picturesque means of protagonist’s characterization.

3. Modal verbs and verbal forms with the modal meanings are very important for us to present and use a lot of subtle stylistic connotations in our speech.

The simple modals, such can, may, must, will, should have SINGLE forms, whereas the more complex structures known as PERIPHRASTIC MODALS are formed with the verbs be and have, as in be able to (can, could);

be allowed to (may, might);

be going to (will, would);

be supposed to (shall, should) – (meant, expected, obliged);

have (got) to (must);

to be to (have to according to the plan). [G. Yule. Explaining Grammar, 31, p. 86].

e.g. «Some books are to tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read in parts; others to be read but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention».

[F. Bacon, 46; 156].

«I wonder», said he (Wickham), at the next opportunity of speaking, whether he is likely to be in this country much longer.»

[Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice, 4; 81].

«One of them at any rate: I (Shirley) do not bargain for less: and she is to appear in some such fashion as this. I am to be walking by myself on deck, rather late of an August evening, watching and being watched by full harvest-moon…»

[Ch. Bronte, Shirley, 11; 145].

«Might she only follow her own judgment, she thought she should be able to find, perhaps a harsh, but effectual cure for her sufferings». [11; 242].

«I asked to be allowed to look at the note of terms which his respectable patron had drawn up for my inspection.» [W. Collins, The Woman in White, 2; 10].

«Why blame it all, we’ve got to do it. Don’t I tell you it’s in the books?»

[M. Twain, 10, p. 21].

«Would you stop complaining about things? We’re supposed to do our best and we should be able to finish this work before the boss has to start screaming at us again. If you could just concentrate on getting finished, we might be allowed to leave early this afternoon. You know he’s not going to let us leave early if we can’t get the work done.

[G. Yule. 31; 86].

Stylistic Potential of the Periphrastic modals in Context

Random Quirk [28, p. 137] gives classifying them as: some interesting information about the «The verb of intermediate function»:

1. Central Modals: can, could, may, might, shall, should, will/’ll, would/’d, must.

2. Marginal Modals: dare, need, ought to, used to.

3. Modal Idioms: Had better, would rather / sooner, be to, have got to.

4. Semi-auxiliaries: have to, be about to, be able to, be bound to,

be going to, be obliged to, be supposed to,

be willing to.

e.g. «One had better (best) do smith» – [25, v. 2; 119].

«If you want to feel good and live a long life you had better take a half-hour walk each day, preferably at a brisk pace». [3; 262].

«You had better ask us about the perfect diet in a perfect environment and how to maintain your good health longer if you take the effective doses of vitamins A, C, E, plus selenium, glutathione, cysteine, and bioflavonoids» [3; 266].

«One o’clock has just struck. I am considering whether I had better wait here for the arrival of the messenger from London, or slip away quietly, and watch for him outside the long gate». [W. Collins, The Woman in White, 2; 238].

«Or, perhaps – NO! it is quite revolting enough to feel that third conjecture stir ring in my mind. I would rather not see it confronting me in plane black and white». [2; 228].

«By whatever other circumstance the day may be marked. It is not the day, Lavinia, on which I will allow a child of mine to pounce upon me. I beg – nay, command! – that you will not pounce». [Ch. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, 5; 430].

«I had not spoken hitherto, and I would much rather nor have spoken now. But the expression of distress in Laura’s face when she turned it towards me… left me no other alternative than to give my option…» [W. Collins, 2; 218].

«Many of these visitor were consumptive, who had yet to learn that the bracing alpine air would sooner for their health…» [The Sunday Times, Culture, June 27, 2004, p. 42].

«The one virtue of our electoral system is supposed to be that it enables the people to «kick the rascals out» at election time…» [The Week, 30 Oct. 2004, p. 34].

I.V. Arnold points at modal particles just, only but K.N. Kachalova, [24, p. 303–305] includes too, also, as well, either, else, even, alone, ever, simply, merely. They can express the additional shades (connotations) in context.

e.g. «There was something hidden, beyond a doubt, under the mere surface-brutality of the words which her husband had just addressed to her». [2; 224].

«That was the very thing I was thinking just now, «said Stickly-Prickly.» I think scales are a tremendous improvement on prickles – to say nothing of being able to swim…» [The Children’s Treasury of Humour, 12; 42].

«How strange! «cried Elizabeth.» How abominable! – I wonder that the very pride of this Mr. Darcy has not made him just to you!» [J. Austen, Pride and Prejudice, 4; 85].

«But I tell you, honestly, if you want to see me swim away, you’ve only got to drop me into the water». [12; 39].

«June 19^th. – I had only got as far as the top of stairs when the locking of Laura’s door suggested to me the precaution of also locking my own door, and keeping the key safety about me while I was out of my room». [W. Collins, 2; 272].

Periphrastic modals are used to communicate a lot of connotations and subtle shades and tinges. This process of activation of periphrastic modals by relating them to our speaking and writing expands possibilities and potentialities of texts and discourses in the frame of their contexts. They convey the identities, knowledge, emotions, abilities, beliefs, and assumptions of the writer (speaker) and reader (hearer); association and the relationships holding between them. The most striking instances of periphrastic modals presented above give us additional material for the practical course in the frames of the theoretical English grammar.

Stylistic transpositions of special connotative value in expressive language conveyed by verbal forms. (Table 1.4.)

l. The Historical Present.

e.g. «Habits of writing and reading in Anglo-Saxon England were indeed largely confined to monastic centers; but from the twelfth century onwards the production and consumption of manuscript material increased greatly, and some vernacular works of fourteenth and fifteenth centuries survive in numerous copies.» [The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature, 20; 3].

«Such verse (alliterative) continued to be written in English, as we shall see, to the end of the Middle Ages and it has bee revived in modern times by poets such as W.H. Auden; but its principles, derived from a common Germanic tradition of oral poetry, present difficulties to the reader of Chaucer, Pope, or Tennyson. [20; 4].

«The evolution of Homo sapiens, being with the same physical characteristics that we possess, was a long and complex process that is still imperfectly understood. The earliest evidence for the existence of Australopithecus, or «southern ape», dates from approximately 2 million years ago and comes from the temperate regions of Africa and western Asia (now known as the Middle East)». [Civilization of the World, 21; 4].

NOTE: The so-called «historical present» occurs in historical information, in rather mannered and formal prose of an old-fashioned tone, and furthermore it is common in colloquial spoken narrative, especially at points of particular excitement. The time reference is unequivocally past. [Quirk R., 28; 1457].