Amplifikacija kaip stiliaus figūra

Juozas ABARAVIČIUS AMPLIFICATION AS A FIGURE OF STYLE (Notes on Its Descriptive Features) Amplification is rarely heard of these days. One might say that it has become primarily a concept encountered in academic reading and discussion (in rhetoric, poetics, stylistics, and related disciplines). Lithuanian philologists seem little concerned with the content of amplification as a term, its descriptive features, its systematic affiliation, or its rank. In the stylistics studies of Lithuanian researchers, we do not find it examined among independent figures of style. For instance, in J. Pikčilingis’s “Stylistics of the Lithuanian Language,” amplification is discussed as a means of making language more persuasive and creating emphasis. Here it is examined (alongside accumulation) as one of the types of stylistic enumeration1. Only in K. Gaivenis and St. Keinys’s “Dictionary of Linguistic Terms” is this expressive device quite rightly regarded as a figure of style. This is the first meaning given to it there as a term. Amplification is defined there as “1. A figure of style in which several language elements are used successively to intensify expression: People toil and strive for the happiness of their homeland (A. Venclova).”2 The second meaning given to the concept there, “2. The lengthening of a text when translating from one language into another (...)”, is irrelevant to these notes. The example of amplification given in the dictionary in question is, naturally, very elementary. Before discussing the less elementary, more typical, and more developed variants of this figure of style, we must, of course, set aside the sometimes proposed irrelevant and unconstructive feature of amplification—that it is supposed to have a summarizing element at the end. This is said to distinguish it from accumulation, which supposedly has no such element. This view is presented, for example, in some German stylistics textbooks. Thus, W. Fleischer and G. Michel’s “Stylistics of Contemporary German” states: “Alongside simple enumeration—accumulation—there is ampli- 1 P i k č i l i n g i s J. Lietuvių kalbos stilistika. V., 1971. T. 1. P. 202 – 205. 2 G a i v e n i s K., K e i n y s S. Kalbotyros terminų žodynas. Kaunas, 1990. P. 18. 50 fication, by which is meant an enumeration with a summarizing element at the end³. A similar view is reflected in J. Pikčilingis’s “Stylistics of the Lithuanian Language” (hereafter simply Stylistics), where examples illustrate E. Riesel’s claim that the difference between the two types of enumeration “is supposedly entirely formal”: accumulation (?) has a summarizing element, amplification (?) does not⁴. Here Stylistics (p. 202) gets it wrong: the types of enumeration are reversed. Further on, however, in discussing the examples, it is rightly emphasized: “Here we have accumulation—the enumerated links in the chain <...> end without a summation.” And elsewhere: “Here the summarizing words are everything, all. The sentences constitute amplification”⁵. Once such a formal feature of amplification is posited, it is easy to make a mistake and overlook its essence. And its essence is different. Incidentally, Stylistics itself also points out a fundamental difference between accumulation and amplification, raised by the French stylist A. Albalat and followed by M. Meyer. Accumulation consists of an abundance of details placed one after another, whereas amplification, by contrast, consists of an abundance of comparisons, paired metaphors, varied images, and all kinds of epithets⁶. These are already essential features, although somewhat inconsistent. In fact, accumulation brings together details that each say something new, add something, supplement the account in some way, and so on. Amplification, on the other hand, expands and intensifies the content of a thought, sometimes varying it by returning to it, and so on. We find accumulation in M. Martinaitis’s poem “A Family Album Found in a Dump.” Wedding photograph. With a newborn. / First steps. It was a girl. / A little older. A white, floor-length dress. / With flowers. Confirmation, a bishop. The same girl— / now a teenager, unattractive, with long legs. MMartA 23. This is, one might say, a typical example of accumulation. Nominative— 3 F l e i s c h e r W., M i c h e l G. Stilistik der deutschen Gegenwartssprache. Leipzig, 1975. S. 126. 4 P i k č i l i n g i s J. Min. veik. P. 202; Riesel E. Stilistik der deutschen Sprache. Moskau, 1963. S. 320. 5 P i k č i l i n g i s J. Min. veik., P. 203. 6 See the same work and the authors and sources cited there. 51 Through various sentences, parenthetical clauses in segmented sentences, and other grammatical means (that is not the point), many details are enumerated, each “adding” something new that can be seen when looking at an old photograph. And this enumeration continues in the poem’s other stanzas, without repeating anything or retrospectively varying it. Compare also the second stanza: Learning to play. Ballet lessons. Violin, / held under the chin (breasts not yet swollen from music). / A sudden girlish blossoming. A slender / neck. An intent gaze. Eyes! Slightly retouched. / A man, a stiff collar. At the altar, in a veil. (Ibid.). These examples aptly reveal the essence of accumulation. Amplification has a different essence. It has already been discussed. Let the examples illustrate it. The Jonušas of the Masurian seaside today are as if they had swallowed a stake—self-controlled and quiet, having bitten off their loose chatter with a sharp snap. POrinEK 136. Here, amplification is achieved by homogeneous or synonymous means that strengthen and vary the content of the thought. We find semantic parallelism here, and thus an excess of expressive means (as if they had swallowed a stake; self-controlled and quiet, having bitten off their loose chatter with a sharp snap). But this cannot be called unmotivated excess. The young people from the Masurian seaside are described, through a phraseological comparison and epithets (including metaphorical ones, by the way), as behaving quietly in the hall of Trakai Castle; their “manner” of silence is portrayed from somewhat different angles, bringing out the “barely, barely” features and shades of meaning in what is depicted. From this, from the broader semantic whole, the motivation for the characters’ behavior becomes clear. The writer P. Orintaitė likes amplifications. Quite a few occur in descriptions of the wedding of Danutė, daughter of Kęstutis and Birutė. Here are a couple more examples: The future bride was strangely calm: now it was all the same anyway; it did not matter. The decision was final. The mark of exile was etched on her forehead—she was condemned irrevocably... And yet she seemed overflowing with feeling, like a young mare’s cup. But restrained. POrinEK 129; But Danutė alone—like a sacrificial victim devoted to the gods, deserving of pity. Numb as a living log, curled up within herself, seeing nothing, feeling nothing. POrinEK 130. These examples reflect the expansion of the content of thought characteristic of amplification— 52 —its intensification, the strengthening of an impression through semantically related linguistic elements, creating a measured excess of expression. Compare: Numb as a living log, curled up within herself, seeing nothing, feeling nothing, and other such details of the image. In many specialized works, amplification is discussed as a means of expanding and enriching language and the content of thought (Latin amplificatio—expansion, enlargement, multiplication; in rhetoric, intensification; cluttering with unnecessary words). In antiquity, a distinction was made between amplification of the subject matter, stylistic amplification, and amplification of the word. Amplification of the subject matter involved speaking about something in various ways in order to make it persuasive and convincing. It was something like a “magnifying glass of rhetorical suggestion”: premises and arguments were gathered not to teach, but to influence⁷. Researchers also compare the stylistic amplification used in antiquity “to a telescope which, by magnifying, points out to the recipient (odbiorcy) invisible fields (obszary) of thought and the meanings concealed there, above all emotional ones”⁸. Amplification of the word, meanwhile, means expanding simple expressions with individual words or phrases so as to make them more forceful⁹. In many works on rhetoric and stylistics, amplification involving summarizing constituents is not even mentioned. But sometimes more specific varieties of this stylistic figure are examined. For example, some researchers examine amplification based on the development or expressive combination of the nominative of theme¹⁰. We will not discuss all of them. Perhaps something should be said about amplification of the nominative of theme. Indeed, the nominative of theme is often amplified and expanded in a text, with a characterization provided for it. For example: Germas goodness germas—primordial, never-known and forgotten / unbelievable as a blue swan / suspicious as a noon bell / mysterious as an evening of firs <...>JDegPA 24. This variety is somewhat 7 Plačiau apie tai žr.: Korolko M. Sztuka retoryki. Przewodnik encyklopedyczny. Warszawa, 1990. S. 74. 8 See ibid. P. 121. 9 For more on this, see ibid. P. 121–122. 10 Čmykova N., Baskakova L. Gramatičeskij trop i amplifikacija. – Problemy ekspressivnoj stilistiki. Izd-vo Rostovskogo universiteta, 1987. S. 84–86. 53 recalls the amplification of a word. Amplification, emotional expansion and intensification here begin with the repetition of the thematic nominative itself. What follows is a multifaceted characterization of “goodness,” in which the aim is not so much to enumerate new details and qualities as to make the general enumeration expressive and emotional. Although one can also discern an element of accumulation here. Cf. also: Letters! / Plain, level, uniform, and tiny letters PTarGS 14. Here too, the repetition of the thematic nominative is characteristic. Yet specialist literature seems to claim, quite without justification, that amplification is unrelated to repetition, ellipsis, or inversion¹¹. There may be no need to dispute the last two stylistic figures. Nevertheless, it is hard to see why repetition could not be a component of amplification. After all, it expands the content of speech and intensifies its expressiveness and emotional force, as well as the intensity with which realities are manifested. Here is how, in an excerpt from J. Marcinkevičius’s poem “Homo sum,” repetition conveys so well the way the lyrical subject, “chained in the galley of time,” struggles against an evil necessity. I AM A HUMAN BEING! / Chained to Time’s galley, / I row with difficulty, / I row, I row.../ And sweat streams down my face, / and across my naked back lash / the cruel whips of NECESSITY, / Truly an ocean. / Truly an ocean. / Truly a horizon. / Truly a horizon, / which neither draws nearer nor recedes. / I row, I row / and with parched lips repeat: / I AM A HUMAN BEING... JMarcR III 39. Here one certainly cannot say that the repetition of words and phrases does not help amplify, expand, and intensify the semantics of the metaphor of the galley of time, of strenuous rowing and its monotony. The impression of a person chained in the galley of time grows ever stronger, because the repetitions—“I row heavily, / I row, I row...”; “Truly an ocean. / Truly an ocean. / Truly a horizon. / Truly a horizon, which neither draws nearer nor recedes.”—slow down the “frames” of the rowing scene, and thus of the scene of the cruel whips of NECESSITY lashing. These repetitions help the metaphor of the galley of time grow into an allusive whole—a network of associations with the image of a sailing warship rowed by chained slaves, criminals, and soldiers in the 7th–18th centuries, used as a backdrop for the present-day unfolding of the “galley of time” pa- 11 See: Š i r i n a L. Amplification in the system of expressive means. – Problems of Expressive Stylistics. 1987. P. 83. 54 used as a backdrop for the present-day unfolding of the “galley of time.” Therefore, undoubtedly, those philologists are right who claim that, among other things, amplification is also achieved through various repetitions: repetition of words, synonymous repetition, repetition of tropes, the presentation of salient essential features, a sequence of argumentative thought, and other means. This view is reflected, for example, in S. Krahl and J. Kurz’s “Little Dictionary of Stylistics”12. Of course, other figures of speech (gradation, antithesis, enumeration, correction) and many other stylistic devices (epithets, comparisons, synonyms, etc.) also help amplify a thought. The aim here was not to examine the diversity of the types, varieties, semantics, structure, and functions of amplification. It is worth noting only the great representational and emotive power of this stylistic figure. Its varieties are particularly effective when semantically incongruous, contradictory components are arranged regressively, in retardation. Each such retarding component holds the reader’s attention until, at last, the meaning of the stylistic whole becomes clear. Compare also the excerpt from V. Braziūnas’s “Apmaudas”: Unending resettlement, a move into memory where everything is out of place, piled up and scattered, nothing can any longer be found among dismantled days and weeks, threadbare names and abraded months, ceaselessly sliding nowhere. VBrazAL 39. Here, one can still make nothing of the purpose of the amplification until one has carefully read the entire sequence of constituents. Being so diverse and effective semantically, structurally, and functionally, amplification cannot be regarded merely as a variety of stylistic enumeration. It is a fully autonomous stylistic figure. Abbreviations VBrazAL - V. Braziūnas. Alkanoji linksniuote. V., 1993. JDegPA - J. Degutytė. Purpuru atsišvėrusi. V., 1984. JMarcr III - J. Marcinkevičius. Raštai. T. 3. V., 1982. MMartA - M. Martinaitis. Atrankinta. V., 1996. POrinEK - P. Orintaitė. Erelių kuorai. Kaunas, 1992. RTarGS - P. Tarulis. Gyvas stebuklas. V., 1993. 12 Krahl S., Kurz J. Kleines Wörterbuch der Stilkunde. Leipzig, 1984. S. 10. 55