LIETUVIŲ KALBOS SANDAROS TYRINĖJIMAI

LIETUVIŲ KALBOTYROS KLAUSIMAI, XXVI (1987)

KAZIMIERAS ŽUPERKA

THE REFLECTION OF STYLE NORMS IN METALINGUISTIC COMMENTS

A metalinguistic comment is the discussion of language and its units or of the linguistic expression of a text: evaluation, justification of usage, etc.¹ For example: Being intelli-gent often means being dependent, submissive. (A new and strange meaning of the word, but, alas, increasingly popular.) LM 1984.V.13; Our dear teacher, to whom the cold title of associate professor is entirely unsuitable (which is why we do not address her that way!), is very much like such an amber N 1975 12 25; That word “dignity” sounds grand, especially when speaking of a Lithuanian peasant woman LM 1981.V.16; Tanta, who created such songs, deserves immortality for them alone. These are overly grand words MarcD 96.

The content of metalinguistic comments is quite varied. From this variety, comments providing stylistic information were singled out, i.e. metalinguistic comments on style. They were collected from literary, journalistic, and scholarly texts² as well as from speeches at meetings and conferences and from everyday conversations. These comments show that many ways of using the Lithuanian language exist in our society’s linguistic consciousness: scholarly, legal, official, newspaper, journalistic, everyday, popular, elevated, coarse, rural, archaic, contemporary, elderly people’s, youth, figurative, emotional, satirical, concise, formulaic, and slang, among others. In the study of stylistics, many of the listed ways of using language have the status of styles; they are regarded as functional or other styles (scholarly, journalistic, everyday, elevated, figurative, concise). Other ways of speaking (elderly people’s, youth, slang) are not usually considered styles, but are closely connected with the stylistic system of language and with style norms.

The metalinguistic comments under discussion provide two kinds of stylistic information: first, they show that the speaker distinguishes a particular way of using language (i.e. a style); second, a particular linguistic device is evaluated as customary and characteristic of that style, i.e. as a norm of that style. Individual words, expressions, larger passages of text, and ways of speaking in general are evaluated. For example: In the language of the law [speaking], he is a recidivist, convicted several times for various thefts T 1980.XI.12; She invited [him], as a law-

¹ Žr. Jiříčková J. Metařečový komentář. – Slovo a Slov esnost, 1979, N 2, s. 149—151; Hoffmannova-Jiříčková J. Metajazyk a metareč a jejich charakter v díle Karla Čapka. – Slovo a Slov esnost, 1979, N 4, s. 295—296.

²With regard to the metalinguistic function (see Župerka K. The Metalinguistic Function of the Speech Act in Various Styles. – In: Society and the Education of the Individual/Abstracts of the Scientific Conference. Šiauliai, 1978, p. 117), linguistics differs from other sciences: here the metalinguistic aspect is ever-present, rather than confined to individual comments. From linguistic studies, only comments on the linguistic expression of the authors’ own texts were collected. Like other language users, linguists search for words when speaking or writing, and sometimes comment on that search.

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ninkai sako, įtraukė į nusikaltimą V. K., beje, taip pat nepilnametis T 1978. X.5; Atsiprašau, jei atsakymas nuskambės labai vadovėliškai. Struktūrinis branduolys miesto plane, gyvenamųjų ir visuomeninių pastatų kompleksas su aptarnavimo centru, pastatytas pagal architektų sumanytą funkcinę-kompozicinę idėją, – taip urbanistai nusako gyvenamąjį rajoną LM 1983.X.15 (iš architekto interviu).

In linguistic stylistics, style is usually defined as the purposeful selection and combination of linguistic devices. The metalinguistic comments of language users mostly reflect and evaluate selection, i.e. the inventory of stylistically marked styles. Sh. Bally wrote in French Stylistics: “Phenomena that do not interest the speaker should not interest stylistics either”³. Today we agree with this statement only in part: it applies to encoding stylistics; decoding stylistics is also concerned with what interests the addressee. We could reformulate Sh. Bally’s statement as follows: stylistics cannot be indifferent to phenomena that interest the speaker. The use of a metalinguistic comment indicates awareness of linguistic expression and foregrounds the utterance. These comments are a kind of study of language; they clearly confirm F. de Saussure’s observation that everyone studies linguistic activity to some degree⁴.

In recent years, metalinguistic comments on style have increasingly attracted the attention of researchers in stylistics and text linguistics⁵.

An important question is the typology of comments on style. The ways of using language listed above, gathered from the comments, do not form a single classification system: they are distinguished on various grounds, and are related to one another through relations of subordination and coordination, separation, or intersection. Analysis of the comments confirms the following conclusions reached by researchers into general problems of stylistics: 1) the number of styles is not finite⁶; 2) classification on a single basis does not allow the complex phenomenon of style to be discussed in sufficient detail, and various classifications of styles are needed⁷.

Analysis of the comments does not propose any new division of styles, nor does it refute existing classifications. To be sure, it cannot be said that it clearly confirms them. For one thing, the linguistic devices in the comments are assigned to a particular style, but style does not emerge here as a system. Secondly, style is indicated not as a member of some larger system, but only as one member of a binary stylistic opposition: both members of the opposition may be stated or, more often, only one is stated while the other is implied; for example: Officially it is called the New Music Ensemble, but popularly and more briefly

³ Балли Ш. Французская стилистика. — М., 1961, с. 79.

⁴ Жр. Соссюр Ф. де. Труды по языкознанию. — М., 1977, с. 45.

⁵ Vinokur, T. G. On the content of certain stylistic concepts. — In: Stylistic Studies. Moscow, 1972, p. 84; Wierzbicka, A. Metatext in the text. — In: New Developments in Foreign Linguistics. Moscow, 1978, issue 8, p. 417; Cheremisin, P. G. Russian Stylistics. — Moscow, 1979, part 2, pp. 38–44; Shvarts-kopf, B. S. Strategy and tactics of the speech process in relation to the stylistic norm. — In: Linguistic Norm and Functional Styles. Program-invitation and abstracts of papers for the republican symposium. Vilnius, 1984, pp. 50–52.

⁶ Жр. Скребнев Ю. М. Очерк теории стилистики. — Горький, 1975, с. 48.

⁷ Ten pat, p. 42, 56, 166.

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– Nako ensemble LM 1984.III.31; Signed officially: “Grateful in advance, Brazulis” (from a conversation on the bus).

On the basis of the names and concepts for ways of using language gathered from the comments, it can be said that several kinds of stylistic phenomena are reflected here: 1) the so-called functional styles; 2) general categories of stylistic culture; and 3) other stylistic and style-related oppositions: the so-called vertical classification of styles (high – low), age (older – younger), historical (speaking in an old-fashioned – modern way), territorial (speaking in a rural – urban way), and the opposition between the standard language and other language varieties (e.g.: as the Dzūkians call it, speaking in slang).

1. The means of expression of 4 functional styles—scientific, administrative, journalistic, and colloquial—are clearly reflected in metalinguistic comments.

a) The following comments point to means of the scientific style: to put it scientifically, to say it scientifically, it will sound like a textbook, as the scholastics would say. Also included here are references to the language of various fields of intellectual work: to use the language of breeders, using the term of philosophers (economists...).

b) References to the administrative (official, legal, statutory) style: speaking officially, officially called, to put it in the language of the law, speaking in legal language, lawyers would call it, speaking in judicial language, as legal professionals say.

c) References to the journalistic (newspaper) style: speaking journalistically, given a slogan-like name, as they say in newspapers, as journalists write, called so in the press.

d) References to the colloquial (everyday) style: to put it more colloquially, translated into everyday language, to put it simply, a common word. Comments such as as people say most often also indicate this style, to put it in popular terms, as people say, as people are wont to say, according to people, as the švietas say. Many comments on the low (coarse) style can be assigned to colloquial style references: as common folk say, to put it bluntly (coarsely; often, though not recommended, roughly), to put it mildly, an ugly word. Signals of this style also include excuse me, pardon the expression.

e) The artistic style has no special linguistic devices of its own, apart from a small number of poeticisms (in Lithuanian), while metalinguistic comments, as noted, draw attention to the characteristic devices of a particular style; therefore, in this case, there are no typical metalinguistic comments. A fairly common comment, figuratively speaking, signals vividness of expression as a feature of general stylistic culture (i.e. relative vividness compared with the expression of the context as a whole), rather than as a characteristic feature of the artistic style. The poetic quality of linguistic expression may be indicated by comments such as as the poet (poets) says, in the poet’s words, as the song goes, and corresponding individual comments, e.g., as the songs promised MarcSA 191.

2. The concept of stylistic culture includes more general (precision, clarity, concision) and more specific (vividness, liveliness, etc.) stylistic features. Metalinguistic comments particularly often reflect the clarification and compression of an utterance: more precisely (better, more truly) speaking; speaking concisely, in short, briefly and plainly, in a (single) word.

In preparing this article, metalinguistic comments were selected from the two-volume J. Balčikonis Selected Works (the author’s comments on his own text) and from works translated by him

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H. C. Andersen’s “Fairy Tales.” Four specification markers were found: better put (3 times), more precisely put (1); 14 markers of concision: briefly put (7), put more briefly (1), in a word, put (1), in a word (1), that is (4).

3. Of the remaining stylistic metalinguistic comments not yet discussed, at least the following are worth mentioning:

a) Those reflecting the opposition between high and low style. High style is indicated by: expressed eloquently, an eloquent word, a bright word, sounds solemn, speaking in beautiful words, as it is said in the national anthem. One comment indicating a higher style (that name is too clever for us) was found in H. C. Andersen’s “Fairy Tales”: “The Romans and Greeks called her a Dryad,” said the old man. “But that name is too clever for us, and in Naujasodė they nicknamed her ‘the tree-family granny’ BalčAP 112.”

Low style is indicated by the comments already mentioned in discussing colloquial style.

b) Some low-style markers also belong to another opposition—that of positive and negative emotional connotation; cf. affectionately calls, calls by a pleasant (fond) name, gave a lovely name and to put it bluntly, speaking roughly.

c) A clear historical (chronological) opposition between old-fashioned and modern ways of speaking: speaks in an old-fashioned way, one would say it in an old-fashioned way, to put it in old-fashioned terms, an old-fashioned expression, as they used to say then, as people used to say earlier—as is customary (popular, fashionable) to say now, as they call it now, speaking in contemporary terms, to put it in today’s terms, to put it in a new way, speaking in a modern way.

d) The opposition between the speech of different ages (generations): old people say, older people call it—as young people say nowadays, according to young people, as our young people would say. Comments on children’s speech also belong here: children call it, kindergarteners call it (in opposition to adults say). The old-fashioned manner of speaking and the speech of older people partly reinforce this, e.g.: as our parents liked to say.

e) The territorial opposition between rural and urban speech. Comments: rural style, in the words of a country person—urban speech. Comments on rural speech sometimes intersect with comments on old-fashioned speech: as they used to say in our village, as it used to be said in the village.

f) Standard language is particularly often contrasted with slang: said in slang, said in corridor slang, speaking in filmmakers’ slang, to put it in prisoners’ slang, called it in drainage workers’ slang, meant it in Vilnius slang.

Metalinguistic stylistic comments not only explicitly reflect actual stylistic norms; through them, language users and society also claim the right to codify those norms. It seems that the distance between actual stylistic usage and the codification of stylistic norms is smaller than that between other language norms and their codification. For example, something is bookish (or “colloquial”) if the entire Lithuanian-speaking community, or at least most of it, perceives it as bookish (or “colloquial”), whereas a language error remains a language error even when most of society makes it. This is because stylistic norms are internal norms of language; their violation does not destroy the language system, and their change, a certain diffusion of styles, merely differentiates that system in a different way.

Stylistics could benefit greatly from a more comprehensive study of metalinguistic stylistic comments (this article relied on only 700 examples). Utterances containing such comments can provide interesting data for understanding competition among linguistic devices, since many comments (in other words, in scientific terms, and so on) are nothing other than a demonstration of that competition.

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ABBREVIATIONS

BalčAP – Andersenas H. K. Pasakos/Vertė J. Balčikonis. – V., 1966.

LM – Literature and Art.

MarcD – Marcinkevičius Just. Diary Without Dates. – V., 1981.

MarcSA – Marcinkevičius Just. Sena abėcėlė. – V., 1969.

N – Nemunas.

T – Tiesa.

REFLECTION OF STYLE NORMS IN METASPEECH COMMENTS

Abstract

Metaspeech (and metalinguistic) comments in Lithuanian literary, journalistic, and scholarly texts and speech acts reflect various stylistic phenomena: 1) the norms of functional styles; 2) general categories of stylistic speech culture (accuracy, clarity, brevity, imagery, etc.); 3) other stylistic or style-related oppositions: the so-called vertical classification of styles /high – low/, age-based (the speech of older people – fashionable speech), historical (archaic – fashionable speech), territorial (rural – urban speech) and other oppositions. Comments reflect not only the actual stylistic norm, but also speakers’ attempts to codify this norm. A comprehensive study of metaspeech comments on style may contribute to a deeper understanding of contemporary style norms, the differentiation of the language’s stylistic system, competition among linguistic means, and other stylistic phenomena.