The scientific and pedagogical

22 
 
T.Khalilova 
 
One of the fundamental concepts of decoding stylistics is foregrounding. The 
essence of this concept consists in the following. Foregrounding means a specific role 
that some language items play in a certain context when the reader’s attention cannot 
but be drawn to item. In a literary text such items become stylistically marked features 
that build up its stylistic function. 
There are certain modes of language use and arrangement to achieve the effect of 
foregrounding. It may be based on various types of deviation or redundancy or 
unexpected combination of language units, etc.  
However decoding stylistics laid down a few principal methods that ensure the 
effect of foregrounding in a literary text. Among them we can name convergence of 
expressive means, irradiation, defeated expectancy, coupling, semantic fields, semi-
marked structures. 
 
Convergence 
Convergence as the term implies a combination or accumulation of stylistic 
devices promoting the same idea, emotion or motive. A stylistic device is not attached 
to this or that stylistic effect. Therefore a hyperbole, for instance, may provide any 
number of effects: tragic, comical, pathetic or grotesque. Inversion may give the 
narration a highly elevated tone or an ironic ring of parody. 
This «chameleon» quality of a stylistic device enables the author to apply 
different device for the same purpose. The use of more than one type of expressive 
means in close succession is a powerful technique to support the idea that carries 
paramount importance in the author’s view. Such redundancy ensures the delivery of 
the message to the reader. 
An extract from E. Waugh’s novel «Decline and Fall» demonstrates convergence 
of expressive means used to create an effect of the glamorous appearance of a very 
colorful lady character who symbolized the high style of living, beauty and grandeur. 
 
The door opened and from the cushions within emerged a tall young man in a 
clinging dove-gray coat. After him, like the first breath of spring in the Champs-Elysee 
came Mrs. Beste-Chetwynde–two lizard-skin feet, silk legs, chinchilla body, a tight 
little black hat, pinned with platinum and diamonds, and the high invariable voice that 
may be heard in any Ritz Hotel from New York to Budapest. 
Inversion used in both sentences (...from the cushion within emerge a toll man; 
...like the first breath of spring came Mrs. Beste-Chetwynde) at once sets an elevated 
tone of the passage. 
The simile that brings about a sensory image of awakening together with the 
allusion to Paris–the symbol of the world’s capital of pleasures–sustains this 
impression: like the first breath of spring, the Champs-Elysee. A few other allusions to 
the world capitals their best hotels–New York, Budapest, any Ritz Hotel all symbolize 
the wealthy way of life of the lady who belongs to the international jet-set distinguished 
from the rest of the world by her money, beau and aristocratic descent. 
The use of metonymy creates the cinematographic effect of shots and fragments 
of the picture as perceived by the gazing crowd and suggests the details usually blown 
up in fashionable newspaper columns on high society life: two lizard-skin feet, silk legs, 
chinchilla body, a tight little black hat... the invariable voice. 
 

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23 
 
T.Khalilova 
 
The choice of words associated with high-quality life style: exotic materials, 
expensive clothes and jewelry creates a semantic field that enhances the impression still 
further (lizard, silk, chinchilla, platinum and diamonds). A special contribution to the 
high-flown style of description is made by the careful choice of words that belong to the 
literary bookish stratum: emerge, cushions, dove, invariable. 
Even the name of the character–Mrs. Beste-Chetwynde–is a device in itself, it’s 
the so-called speaking name, a variety of antonomasia. Not only its implication (best) 
but also the structure symbolizes the lady’s high social standing because hyphenated 
names in Britain testify to the noble ancestry. So the total effect of extravagance and 
glamour is achieved by the concentrated use of at least eight types of expressive means 
within one paragraph. 
 
Defeated expectancy 
The essence of the notion is connected with the process of decoding by the reader 
of the literary text. 
The linear organization of the text mentally prepares the reader for the 
consequential and logical development of ideas and unfolding of the events. The normal 
arrangement of the text both in form and content is based on its predictability which 
means that the appearance of any element in the text is prepared by the preceding 
arrangement and choice of elements, e.g. the subject of the sentence will normally be 
followed by the predicate, you can supply parts of certain set phrases or collocation 
after you see the first element, etc. 
An example from Oscar Wilde’s play «The Importance of Being Earnest» 
perfectly illustrates how predictability of the structure plays a joke on the speaker who 
cannot extricate himself from the grip of the syntactical composition: 
Miss Fairfax, ever since I met you I have admired you more than any girl... I have 
met... since I met you. (Wide) 
The speaker is compelled to unravel the structure almost against his will, and the 
pauses show he is caught in the trap of the structure unable either to stop or say 
anything new. The clash between the perfectly rounded phrase and empty content 
creates a humorous effect. 
Without predictability there would be no coherence and no decoding. At the same 
time stylistically distinctive features are often based on the deviation from the norm and 
predictability. An appearance of an unpredictable element may upset the process of 
decoding. Even though not completely unpredictable a stylistic device is still a low 
expectancy element and it is sure to catch the reader’s eye. The decoding process meets 
an obstacle, which is given the full force of the reader’s attention. Such concentration on 
this specific feature enables the author to effect his purpose. 
Defeated expectancy may come up on any level of the language. It may be an 
unusual word against the background of otherwise lexically homogeneous text. 
It may be an author’s coinage with an unusual suffix. Among devices that are 
based on this principle we can name pun, zeugma, paradox, oxymoron, irony, anti-
climax, etc. 
Defeated expectancy is particularly effective when the preceding narration has a 
high degree of orderly organized elements that create a maximum degree of 
predictability and logical arrangement of the contextual linguistic material. 
 

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