2. Morphology
implies the study of grammatical changes of isolated
words ...
• by means of affixation • by auxiliaries and by
word-order
(analytically)
3. Two general trends in P. M.:
• Synonymy • Variability
of use
paradigmatic equivalence partial interchangeability of
or interchangeability of morphological ‘categorial forms’
different morphemes: or of members of the opposition
that constitute the grammatical
Category: He is coming next
Dog-s, Cow-s - ox-en,
Monday; Well, are we
phenomen-a, etc.
feeling better today?
4. I. Synonymy
• Neutral & archaic: Brother-s – breth-r-en, he hath – he
has, thou hast, thou doest.
• Br. & Amer: get –got/gotten, at the corner –on the
corner
• Formal & informal: Whom are you talking to? - Who
are you talking to?
• Abolishing the morphological differentiation between
If I was = If I were
• Completely ‘ungrammatical’:
we, you, they (was); he don’t; says I
He comed, he seed
5. II. Variability of Categorial
Forms
• Transposition of grammatically opposed
member
• Neutralization of the grammatical meanings
of the categories
6. Stylistic Significance of Nouns
• Singular (=plural):
• To keep chick, to shot duck, to hunt pig
• The faint fresh flame of the young year flushes From
leaf to flower and from flower to fruit And fruit and
leaf are as gold and fire.
(Swinbum)
7. Plural (=singular):
• The clamour of waters, snows, winds, rains...
(Hemingway)
• The lone and level sands stretch far away. (Shelly)
• “Now what’s that? Reading books instead of
working?”(the delinquent is reading one book at the
moment)
• The real war of the world was not between the Bill
Davidson and the Jean Duvals and the Hans Muliers
(R. Aldibgton)
8. Stylistic Significance of Adjectives
• Mrs. Thompson, Old Man Fellow's
housekeeper had found him deader than a
doornail... (Mangum)
• I wanted to bring the crub but Heidi and June
said it was too dead (E. Hemingway)
• Advertisement: The orangemostest drink in
the world.
• the sweetest baby, the newest fashion of all.
9. Stylistic Significance of Pronouns
• WE
• a) ‘editorial we’
• b) ‘we’ as a symbol
of royal authority:
• And for that offence immediately do we exile
him hence. (Shakespeare)
• c) ‘we’ in science works (researches)
• d) jocular and excessively familiar style:
10. Other pronouns
• YOU
• as an intensifier in
an expressive address or imperative
• Just you go in and win. (Waugh)
• THEY
• opposes the speaker and his interlocutor to this
indefinite collective group of people:
• All the people like us are we, and everyone else is
they. (Kipling)
11. Stylistic Significance of Verbs:
• Category of tense: He is coming. She arrives
tomorrow. (present – future)
• Ruth: You're burning yourself out. And for what?...
George: You don't even begin to understand – you're
no different from the rest. Burning myself out! You
bet I'm burning myself out! I've been doing that for
so many years now – and who in hell cares? (Present-
past)
