SYNTACTICAL DEVICES BASED ON PECULIAR USE OF COLLOQUIAL CONSTRUCTIONS.

Ellipsis is a deliberate abbreviation of a syntactical unit, usu. a sentence.

The missing parts are either present in the syntactic environment of the sentence or are implied by the situation (context).

In colloquial speech such constructions are frequent and arise from the speed of delivery and economy of effort.Sometimes the omission of necessary words becomes an indicator of poor grammar.In works of fiction elliptical sentences are made use of to reproduce the direct speech of characters and create the atmosphere of naturalness; to show their social status; to impart brevity, immediacy and a quick tempo to the author's narrative; to render the emotional tension.They call attention to the phenomenon described and create tense atmosphere.Besides oral speech and fiction, ellipsis is common to some special types of texts.It is very frequent in newspaper headlines, in papers or handbooks on technology and natural sciences.

Aposiopesis (break-in-the-narrative) denotes intentional abstention from continuing the utterance to the end. Without finishing the utterance the speaker (or writer) either begins a new one or stops altogether unwilling or unable (being overwhelmed with emotions) to continue. Aposiopesis presupposes stopping for rhetorical effect with the continuation highly predictable: the missing part can be reconstructed from the context. Elliptical points and a dash may mark aposiopesis in print.What is implied is always stronger than what is said. Thus, the silence produced is called speaking. Aposiopesis creates an emotional tension and invites the reader to give vent to his own imagination, to guess what stands behind the break and unwillingness to proceed (irony, irritation, uncertainty, indecision, anger, a threat, a warning, etc.).Sometimes a break-in-the-narrative is caused by euphemistic considerations – not to name a thing being offensive to the ear.

A question-in-the-narrative is asked and answered (if the answer is not self-evident) by one and the same person, usually the author. It is mainly done for the sake of emotional impact. This variety of question may also remain unanswered to stimulate the addressee’s thinking process over the problem in question, thus performing a dialogue-or contact-establishing function. In the case it often contains generalizing one, we and you. The device is also a means of verbal trickery, by which orators take over the initiative and make people believe that the thoughts imposed are their own.

Represented Speech. Actual speech can be reproduced in the following ways: direct speech, indirect speech, and represented speech.Direct speech represents actual speech as it is, in the form of direct quotation.

Indirect speech is an indirect quotation which represents actual speech through the author's words. Grammatically (i.e. morphologically and syntactically) it is wholly dependent on the author’s speech. Represented speech (RS) is a combination of the two as it combines the plane of the author and that of the character. Thus, it almost directly conveys the actual words of the character through the mouth of the author.

Roughly speaking, RS is the inclusion of the direct speech of the character into the author’s speech.

RS is marked by certain grammatical features: its morphology comes from the indirect speech, and syntax – from the direct one:

the tense-forms of the verbs are switched from the present to the past;

personal pronouns are changed from the the 1^st and 2^nd person to the 3^rd person,

the syntactical structure follows the direct speech model: its word order; the use of elliptical, exclamatory, imperative and interrogative sentences, etc.

Besides, like direct speech, the RS is indicated by the presence of the typical words (often from different stylistic layers) and combinations used by the character;

the application of colloquial elements (contracted forms, interjections, etc.);

the inclusion of direct addresses and conversational formulae that accompany the dialogue in progress, etc.

Function. RS sounds more vivid and emotional than indirect speech; it discloses the character’s vision of the events and serves the strongest means of indirect characterization of his inner psychological state.

There can be distinguished two major types of RS:1) uttered represented speech (the representation of the actual utterance through the author’s language), and

2) unuttered represented speech or inner monologue (the representation of the thoughts and feelings of the character which were not materialized in spoken or written language by the character).

In literary studies, when the phenomenon is studied in longer forms, it is termed a stream of consciousness.

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