Structural sentence types as syntactic means of expression in the speeches of historical figures in the work of T. Livius “History” (on the material of the speeches of the 1st decade of the work)

Abstract

Modern linguistics is characterized by an increased interest in the study of rhetoric, which is most closely intertwined with stylistics, poetics and logics. Stylistics originates from rhetoric, the roots of stylistics are to be traced back to classical rhetoric. The achievements of ancient rhetoric have been studied and perfected over the centuries. In this regard, the work of the famous Roman historiographer Titus Livius “History” is a highly valuable document. The speeches of historical figures, which the author introduces in this fundamental work, are the classical example of oratorical art. Even the ancient researchers admired Livy’s language and his rhetorical skill. While analyzing the majority of works dedicated to the study of this problem, we identify the fact that the linguistic stylistics of the speeches of the other decades of the work was studied in detail, whereas the speeches of the first decade remained without the attention of the researchers. The article is devoted to the study of the linguo-stylistic role of the structural sentence types of the speeches of the first decade of the work. The research proves that the functions of syntactic resources of the speech stylistics are of paramount significance. As a result of the analysis, it was found that a noticeable stylistic function is typical of incomplete situational, elliptical sentences; they lack the component which the author is willing to focus the attention of his reader on. There are only a few simple unextended one member sentences, and about twenty simple extended one member sentences. In the process of analysis, the latter were divided into the following types: impersonal, nominative, indefinitepersonal and infinitive. Among these semantic-grammatical structures, indefinite personal and infinitive ones are characterized by the splendorous emotional and expressive colouring. The author quite frequently uses the constructions with an omitted predicate, less often – with the omitted subject. Among the types of incomplete sentences, contextual ones dominate. Incomplete and elliptical constructions spotted in the course of the research enhance the dynamism and expressiveness of the speeches and rather often perform a characterological role. T. Livius often uses sentences complicated by infinitive constructions. The system of complex sentences of the speeches is rich and original, parataxis comprises the fourth part of all complex sentences. As a rule, they are joined by connective conjunctions, less often – by opposing ones. Figurativeness and stylistic simplicity are the characteristic features of non-conjunctive paratactic constructions. The study shows that the indicative conditional sentences prevail quantitatively, whereas the author’s use of predicate, objective and comparative sentences is less frequent. The characteristic feature of paratactic constructions is not only their emotional and expressive role, but also the anaphoric repetition of conjunctions, the subsequent introduction of the same type of sentences, the parallelism of parts of a phrase, and the homoeteleuton of predicates. As a result of the analysis of different structural types of sentences, their characteristic emotional-expressive and aesthetic-argumentative functions were revealed, which serve as a significant factor in the identification of the author’s idiostyle.