Syntactical stylistic devices

a) In stylistic analysis of a piece of writing the general character of sentences is to be taken into consideration. Sentences may be long or short, simple or complex, each of them having their uses depending on the object of the writer.

Note the general character of the sentences Atticus Finch uses in his speech: they are long composite sentences with a number of attributive and co-ordinate clauses joined by means of the conjunction "and" which in some cases does not merely show that two ideas are connected but has a more emphatic meaning corresponding to the Russian conjunction "a", e.g. "She was white, and she tempted a Negro."

Another "and" begins a paragraph which is not a common way of beginning a sentence or a paragraph in English. E.g. "And so a quiet, respectable, humble Negro ... has had to put his word against two white people's." "And so" (the Russian equivalent may be "и вот") used in the above sentence stresses the fact that the next point Atticus is going to speak about is logically connected with the previous paragraph, that it is the development of the same thought.

Practically the same can be said of the conjunction "but" which begins a paragraph in this way emphasizing the contrasting or contradictory idea expressed in it in relation to the previous paragraph. E.g. "But there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal— ..."

The relative pronoun "which" beginning the paragraph "Which, gentlemen, we know is in itself a lie ..." called a signal of sequence (сигнал связи) also accentuates the connection between two paragraphs, the preceding one being its antecedent.

b) A repetition or reiteration (повтор) of the same word or phrase in a sentence or sentences usually lends a peculiar emotional force or emphasis to what is being said. It may also make the utterance more rythmical.

Repetition is often used in oratorical style to make the speaker's meaning clear, to lay greater emphasis on his statements so that the listeners could grasp the full significance of what he says.

The repetition of the same syntactical pattern is called syntactical parallelism or a parallel structure (параллелизм или параллельная конструкция) e.g. "...some people are smarter than others, some people have more opportunity..., some men make more money than others, some ladies make better cakes than others—..." A word or phrase may be repeated at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences {anaphora — анафора), e.g. "...she persisted in breaking it. She persisted and..."; at the end of succesive clauses {epiphora — эпифора), е. g. "...he swore out a warrant, no doubt signing it with his left hand, and Tom Robinson now sits before you, having taken his oath with the only good hand he possesses—his right hand"; the last word of a clause may be repeated at the beginning of the next clause {anadiplo-sis — подхват), e.g. "...she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society, a code so severe that..."

Sometimes the repeated word may not be the word itself but its derivative (root or morphological repetition), e.g. "... in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted, confident that you...". Note that syntactical parallelism and a repetition of the same word often go together.

Parallel patterns are often used for the purpose of contrasting two opposed ideas or features thus heightening the effect of the utterance. This stylistic device is known as antithesis (противопоставление) or contest and may be used in one sentence, e.g. "Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold" or in a number of sentences or paragraphs, e.g. "...on the assumption that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral, that... Which, gentlemen, we know is in itself a lie.... a lie I do not have to point out to you. You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some..." The parallel constructions combined with the repetition of the same words emphasize the contrast expressed by the words "all" — "some " and the antonyms "lie"-"truth".
To make his point plain or to show how vital it is a writer sometimes arranges his ideas according to the degree of their importance or emphasis, the most important, from his point of view, coming last. This stylistic device is known as gradation, or climax* (нарастание), e.g. "This case is not a difficult one, it requires no minute sifting of complicated facts... To begin with, this case should never have come

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