Features of stylistic functions of Adverbs on -mente in modern Spanish fiction

Dolzhenkova Victoria PhD in Philology Docent, the department of Ibero-Romance Linguistics, M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University 119991, Russia, g. Moscow, ul. Leninskie Gory, 1 dolvik@mail.ru Other publications by this author     Yakovleva Viktoriya Valentinovna PhD in Philology Associated professor, the Spanish language department, MGIMO U MFA Russian Federation 76 Prospekt Vernadskogo str., office 3060, Moscow, 119454, Russia cosvic@mail.ru

Kudlai Kseniya Sergeevna Master, the Department of Iberian Romance Linguistics, M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University 119234, Russia, Moscow, Leninskie Gory str., 1, office 1058 ksenikudlay@mail.ru

In this paper, the stylistic functions of the productive suffix of the Spanish language -mente were considered on the material of prose works of modern Spanish fiction. In this regard, it seems appropriate to consider the specifics of the functioning of adverbs with the formant -mente in modern Spanish, to determine the main stylistic functions of the mentioned adverbial units in the literary text.

The following definition of adverb is given in the grammar of the Royal Spanish Academy: "an adverb is an unchangeable, stressed part of speech, the elements of which are endowed with lexical meaning and which modify the meanings of other grammatical categories, mainly a verb or adjective, a whole sentence, and sometimes another adverb"^{[12; p. 226]}

This definition emphasizes the nature of the relations that an adverb enters into with other parts of speech, as well as the ability of an adverb to define itself, modify a syntagma or a whole sentence.

The definition given by Spanish–speaking philologists Amado Alonso and Pedro Henriques Urena indicates that "adverbs express concepts dependent on other dependent concepts - verbs or adjectives, which in turn depend on an independent concept expressed by a noun." ^{[8, p. 201-222]}. In turn, the Spanish grammarian Andres Belho he rightly notes that "adverbs modify modifications" ^{[9, p. 103]}, that is, they denote a secondary sign. These modifications include: time, place, quantity, mode of action, as well as the affirmative, negative or hypothetical nature of the statement.

Thus, adverbs have grammatical universality, namely, the ability to combine with various parts of speech, precisely due to their immutability, characteristic of the service parts of speech. However, unlike units of this category, the adverb does not lose its significance.

In Spanish, the number of adverbs ending in the suffix -mente is large. These linguistic units go back to the periphrasis, which included a Latin feminine noun of the third declension mens, mentis, which translates as "mind, soul, conscience, consciousness, way of thinking." Thus, the adverb tranquilamente was formed from the phrase con mente tranquila (with a clear conscience), where the feminine form of the pre-suffix basis is explained by the fact that the adjective that is part of the adverb must be consistent in gender with the noun mens.

As competitors of this model in Spanish, periphrases with the meaning of the circumstance of the mode of action based on the nouns guisa, cosa were used. For example, de buena guisa – in a good way. Note that in these combinations there was no contraction to one word form, and the model with the noun mens turned out to be more productive.

The Russian philologist-Spaniard N.D. Arutyunova in the work "Problems of morphology and word formation" writes that the suffix -mente is a highly productive model with the help of which an adverb is formed from a derivative adjective" ^{[1, p. 118]}. The author notes that the main function of this suffix is the process of transposition (transition from one part of speech to another). "The role of the mente suffix is reduced to the movement of adjectives into the category of adverbs," the researcher writes ^{[1, p. 118]}. According to N.D. Arutyunova, "functional transposition is associated not only with grammatical, but also with semantic shift, since it is aimed at creating a new word in the language" ^{[1, p. 118]}. Thus, adverbs on -mente are grammatically multifunctional elements that are simultaneously polysemantic lexical units.  If we consider the lexical meaning of a word as "a complex redundant structure consisting of denotative content, including the core and periphery, and connotative environment" ^{[5, p. 17]}, then adverbs on -mente have the ability to acquire additional "stylistic colors" or connotations in collocations with other parts of speech.

The study of the stylistic potential of grammatical level units is engaged in grammatical stylistics, which in turn is divided into morphological and syntactic. Stylistic possibilities of morphology are not recognized by all researchers. For example, the Spanish philologist Martin Alonso believes that stylistic analysis of linguistic means can be performed only at the syntactic level. ^{[7, c. 232]}

The domestic researcher N.M. Firsova does not share the position of the Spanish linguist. She believes that the object of stylistics is language in the process of its use, therefore stylistic analysis can cover all language levels, including morphological. ^{[6, p.22]} As another Russian philologist-Spaniard S.I. Kanonich writes, grammatical stylistics is not only engaged in the analysis of functional and stylistic characteristics, the subject of its study is also are expressive-emotional and evaluative capabilities of language units. ^{[4, p.36]} 

The analysis of stylistic functions on -mente itself is not new to linguistics. One of the first researchers who drew attention to the stylistic potential of adverbs at the beginning of the XX century was the Austrian linguist Leo Spitzer. Using the example of French and Spanish, Spitzer in his work "Stilstudien" analyzes the expressive functions of adverbs in the works of Rabelais, Sevigne, Cervantes ^{[16, pp. 281-288]}

Among other works of Russian philologists, we note A.P. Denisova's dissertation "Stylistic functions of adverbs in mente in modern Spanish", in which the author analyzed how adverbs are used in various functional styles.

In this article, for the first time, the corpus contexts of works of Spanish fiction of the XXI century were considered. The novel "La Sombra del viento" by the famous Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Safon was chosen as the first source for the analysis of the stylistic possibilities of adverbial units on - mente/Shadow of the Wind" (2001). Let's pay attention to some genre features of the novel in order to more accurately determine the function of the adverbial word form in the work.

Spanish literary critic Eduardo Ruiz Tosaus in his article "Algunas consideraciones sobre La sombra del viento de Ruiz Zaf?n/ Some Considerations about Ruiz Safon's Wind Shadow" ^[15] notes that the key image of the work is Barcelona - Safon's hometown, depicted in the traditions of the Gothic novel. The style of the work is distinguished by the slow and episodic unfolding of the intricate plot, and the language of the novel is saturated with metaphors, allusions, epithets.

According to the corpus of the Spanish language of the XXI century "Corpes XXI", in the novel "Shadow of the Wind" there are 526 contexts with adverbs in -mente.

First of all, the functioning of several of the most frequent adverbial units with the suffix -mente in the mentioned artwork is of interest. For example, the vagamente token:

«La historia conten?a elementos vagamente siniestros y de tono folletinesco, lo cual a ojos de Monsieur Roquefort siempre era un punto a favor, porque a ?l, despu?s de los cl?sicos, lo  que m?s le gustaba eran las intrigas de crimen y alcoba/ The story contained elements that were somewhat vicious and of a tabloid tone, which in the eyes of Monsignor Roquefort was always a positive feature, because, after the classics, he liked criminal and boudoir intrigues the most" ^{[15, p.81]}.

The phrase vagamente siniestros we dare to call the author's occasionalism for the modern language. According to the corpus "Corpes XXI", this combination is not recorded in other literary texts. According to researcher A.P. Denisova, individual authorialisms are not uncommon in a work of art and "serve as a method of aestheticization" ^{[3, p. 51]}. Note that this adverb in combination with adjectives or participle receives an additional expressive and emotional connotation:

«Bea me observaba, vagamente tensa. Iba a cambiar de tema, pero la lengua se me adelant?/ Bea looked at me, with barely noticeable tension. I was going to change the subject, but my tongue got ahead of me"^{[15, p.105]}.

«Don Ricardo le recibi?, vagamente sorprendido, pero con buena disposici?n, creyendo que tal vez Fortuna le tra?a una factura/ Don Riccardo received him, with some surprise, but in a good mood, believing that this time Fate might pay him off"^{[15, p.213]}.

An adverb can serve as an introductory word, thereby performing an evaluative function, as in the case of another recurrent adverb for a novel - secretamente. For example:

 "Yo, secretamente, estaba convencido de que con semejante maravilla se pod?a escribir cualquier cosa.../I was secretly convinced that any thing could be described with such admiration..."^{[15, p.181]}.

As an intensifier of the adjective name, this adverbial unit receives additional expressive and emotional connotations:

  "En el fondo se sent?a secretamente orgulloso del muchacho, incluso dese?ndole muerto/ In the depths of his soul there was pride for the young man, although he wished him dead" ^{[15, p.224]}.

Thus, it can be concluded that it is no coincidence that the adverbs vagamente, secretamente are the frequency adverbial units of the novel, since, among other things, their functioning as part of a metaphor creates a special style of narration, which is a kind of genre fusion of detective and Gothic novel.

As a result of the study of corpus contexts of Ruiz Safon's work, the most recurrent combinations of adverbs on -mente with verbs are combinations with sonre?r (9 examples of uses), observar (7 examples); mirar (12), as well as with the verb decir (13). A rather frequent phrase is an oxymoron characteristic of the Russian language: sonre?r amargamente/ smile bitterly (17 examples).

Separately, we will consider the functioning of adverbial units on -mente as part of such stylistic techniques as, for example:

a) impersonation:

"Volutas de humo se alzaban perezosamente/ smoke rings lazily floated up" ^{[15, p.216]}.

b) inversion:

 «Lentamente, me invadi? la certeza absurda de que todo era posible y me pareci? que hasta aquellas calles desiertas y aquel viento hostil ol?an a esperanza/ Gradually, I was seized with an absurd confidence that everything is possible, and it seemed to me that even those deserted streets and that hostile wind smelled of hope" ^{[15, p.331]}.

In the last example, it is the syntactic position of the adverbial unit that will be decisive, which, according to researcher A.P. Denisova, is atypical for an adverb "qualitative characteristics at the beginning of a sentence, therefore this change acquires stylistic significance, which gives imagery to the utterance" ^{[3, p. 52]}

Since the narration in Safon's novel is conducted in the first person, adverbs in combination with verbs of speaking in the dialogues of the novel can be elements of an ellipsis. In fiction, ellipsis is used as a stylistic device necessary to imitate the features of living speech:

1)  — ?Son ustedes familia?

  — Espiritualmente/ — Are you family? — Only in spirit.

3)  — ?Me est? amenazando? — Probablemente/— Are you threatening me?— Maybe.

To recreate the features of colloquial speech, the author also uses the analyzed adverbial units in a stylistically marked meaning:

«Seguro que Adri?n te cae divinamente/ It's obvious that you fucking like Adrian." The adverb divinamente in the dictionary of the Royal Academy is marked "coloquial/colloquial". 

In Spanish colloquial speech, there is a phenomenon of intra-verbal antonymy of adjectives with the semantics of positive evaluation, when adjectives appear in combination with other parts of speech of different semantics as exponents of evaluation, positive or negative, and intensifiers of evaluative meaning. This is due to the constant need for lexical updating of the existing arsenal of evaluation tools, in order to achieve greater expressiveness in the communication process.  When translating the adverb divinamente, this phenomenon should be taken into account, since only in the case of an antonymic translation equivalent will it be possible to convey a stylistically marked connotation.

In addition, according to A.P. Denisova, it is necessary to take into account both "the ambiguity of adverbial units on -mente" and the fact that "words with positive semantics can serve to express negative concepts, and language units with negative denotative meaning — to convey a positive characteristic" ^{[3, p.51]}. For example, the condenadamente felices collocation in the following context: "pero volvi? a los cinco meses y han sido condenadamente felices/but he returned five months later and they became damn happy" ^{[10, p.80]} There are examples in the corpus where the adverb condenadamente describes words with positive semantics:condenadamente guapo/hermoso. Colocations of this kind are more typical for the everyday style of oral communication than for fiction, where they are used as style-forming elements. The semantics of these phrases are contextually determined, which causes difficulties in translation.

 Thus, it can be concluded that in the novel "Shadow of the Wind" adverbs on -mente play an important role in the formation of the author's idiosyncrasy: they are used to create an image of the city of Barcelona filled with mystery, as well as to characterize the characters when describing their emotional state. In the analyzed work, adverbs are used in a metaphorical, stylistically marked meaning, as part of special artistic techniques, which gives imagery to the narrative.

Also, the research material was the stories of writers Anton Castro and Diego Torron. Unlike the works of Carlos Ruiz Safon, their work is little or completely unknown to the Russian-speaking reader. For our research, we selected a collection of 18 stories by Anton Castro "Golpes de mar / Blows of the Sea" (2006 - 2010) and a collection called "Los Dioses de la Noche/ Gods of the Night" (2004) by Diego Martinez Torron, consisting of nine stories.

In total, in the works of Anton Castro, according to the corpus, there are about 170 contexts of the use of adverbs in mente. Adverbial units in Castro's stories, as well as in Safon's novel, give expressiveness to the action expressed by the verb, and can be part of stylistic figures:

a) tautological structure:

«Lo mataron tres hombres. Llevaban a?os buscando al ladr?n de caballos -dijo y me mir? dulcemente con una mirada perdida y triste, como si pidiese perd?n./ He was killed by three. They have been looking for a horse thief for many years," he said and gently looked at me with a lost and sad look, as if asking for forgiveness." ^{[10, p. 34]}

   b) refran:

«Los hechos que sucedieron a partir de aqu? admiten las m?s variadas opiniones. Unos los califican de improbables. Otros de f?bulas maravillosas extra?das de libros antiguos de mitolog?as, y los m?s de hermosos, de extraordinariamentehermosos y dram?ticos/ There can be a wide variety of opinions about the events that have happened since that moment. Someone will rate them as incredible. Others – as taken from ancient books of myths, from the most beautiful, the most beautiful and dramatic." ^{[10, p.56]}

c) parcellations, constructions of expressive syntax that divides a punctuation-related text into several segments or sentences.

An adverbial word form is a word-sentence:

«Otros ir?an a?n m?s lejos en sus deducciones: Leonardo y Graciela se amaban. Ciegamente/. Others would have gone even further in their conclusions: Leonardo and Graciela loved each other. Blindly." ^{[10, p.103]} The analyzed material demonstrates that in the stories of Anton Castro, adverbial units are used with an aesthetic function, having received an additional, emotionally expressive meaning as part of various stylistic techniques, such as tautological structure, parcellation, repetition, personification and others. 

In the works of Diego Martinez Torron, 455 contexts of the use of adverbs in mente are recorded, noticeably more in quantitative terms than in the stories of Anton Castro. The central theme of the collection of short stories "Los Dioses de la Noche/The Gods of the Night" by Diego Martinez Torron is love. Adverbs define verbs such as amar, abrazar, besar. To describe the feeling of love, the author uses whole adverbial couplings when three or more adverbs can occur in a contact position. In these collocations, the writer can adhere to the grammatical norm of the design of a group of adverbs, when only the last adverb in a row is fully formed, and violate it in order to enhance the expressiveness of the narrative:

«Agito el abanico, y en sus movimientos tal vez pueda leerse que he sentido la llamada de solicitud como una hembra en celo. Porque siempre he amado pasional, furiosa, ? vidamente./ A wave of the fan and in these movements it is possible to read that I felt the call as a jealous female. Because I have always loved passionately, fiercely, greedily." ^{[13, p.156]}.

However, contexts were found when two adverbial units acted in a contact position when both adverbs were fully formed:  "Comenzaron a hablar suavemente pausadamente, y el tiempo se iba deteniendo en torno./ They started talking softly, with pauses, and time stood still around." ^{[13, p.84]}.

Of course, this syntactic structure is necessary for the author to give expressiveness to the narrative and is a striking feature of the artistic style. Adverbial couplings increase the expressiveness of the narrative, on the one hand, on the other hand, they are a means of aestheticizing the narrative:

"Luego los hijos van creciendo, van adquiriendo tu misma sabidur?a de la vida, van avanzando en edad hacia arriba... al mismo tiempo que t? vas suavemente, amorosamente, declinando hacia abajo/Then the children gradually grow up, acquire your own life wisdom, get older... and meanwhile you gradually lean towards the earth, accepting it meekly, with tenderness." ^{[13, p.87]}.

As in the stories of Anton Castro, in the works of Diego Torron one can find the use of adverbs as part of poetic figures:

a) refrana:

"Creo sin embargo que en aquella noche me sent? viejo, tremendamente viejo/ However, I think that night I felt old, terribly old." ^{[13, p.132]}.

b) alliteration:

"Aquellas noches en que se sent?a cansado, terriblemente cansado, absolutamente harto de todo, completamente vac?o, deseando tan s?lo descansar, dormir, y dormir por siempre, un sue?o largo, eterno, que no tuviera fin, en el que se vislumbrara la luz al final del t?nel en que se encontraba , el t?nel de la pobreza, de la miseria/ Those nights when I felt tired, terribly tired, absolutely fed up with everything, completely exhausted, wanting only to rest, fall asleep, forget forever, a long, eternal sleep that would have no end, in which there would be a light at the end of the tunnel, in where I was, the tunnel of poverty and misery." ^{[13, p.91]}.

 c) anaphora:

«Sinceramente, te dir? la verdad. Sinceramente, ya no te amo. Sinceramente, te abandono. Sinceramente, nunca te quise. Sinceramente, te ment?. Sinceramente, te apu?alo por la espalda. Mu?rete ya, sinceramente/. Honestly, I'll tell you the truth. Honestly, I don't love you. To tell you the truth, I'm leaving you. To tell you the truth, I've never loved you. Honestly, I lied to you. Honestly, I'm sticking a knife in your back. Die, honestly."  ^{[13, p.93]}. 

It is obvious that the use of adverbs in the composition of a poetic figure, which is not characteristic of prose works, as well as the parcel syntax contribute to the aestheticization of the text, enhancing the expressiveness of the prose narrative, necessary for the accurate perception of the embedded artistic image.

Let's consider some examples of Diego Torron using adverbial units with the suffix –mente with a rare frequency. For example, the adverb espl?ndidamente in the DRAE dictionary is marked "usado m?s en lenguaje po?tico", which means that its use is more typical for poetic works. However, in Diego Torron's short story "Cat? logo de so? adores/ The Dreamer's Catalog", the following example of the functioning of the aforementioned lexeme occurs:

«Tiene Jos? docenas de amigas y mancebas de toda condici?n, a las que paga espl?ndidamente a costa del Tesoro p?blico/. Jose has dozens of girlfriends and mistresses of all sorts, which he could perfectly afford at the expense of the state treasury." ^{[13, p.178]}.

An example of a metaphor is the adverbial word form quijotescamente, only 3 uses of which were found in the corpus of the XXI century, which is also explained by its exceptional use in a literary text. The DRAE dictionary gives the following definition of the adverb quijotescamente:  "with quixotism – an exaggerated display of chivalrous feelings"^[14].

Here is the following context of the use of the above adverb from the story of Diego Torron: "Las guerrillas son el aut?ntico inconveniente para nuestras tropas. Constituyen una forma muy caracter?stica de la lucha del pueblo espa?ol, individualista y an?rquico pero valiente, atacando quijotescamente a unas fuerzas, las nuestras, muy superiores en n?mero y medios, aunque logran debilitarnos despu?s de muchos sacrificios/ Guerrilla detachments are a real inconvenience for our troops. They represent a very characteristic form of the struggle of the Spanish people, prone to anarchy and individualism, but bold, like quixotes attacking our forces, superior in number and means, although successfully weakening us at the cost of heavy losses." ^{[13, p.89]}.

 It is obvious that the use of this adverbial unit helps the author of a work of art, according to A.P. Denisova, "to figuratively reproduce reality." ^{[3, p. 148]}

Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that the adverbs on -mente are a stylistically significant part of speech in the works of modern Spanish writers Carlos Ruiz Safon, Anton Castro and Diego Torron. In the stories of the last two authors, quantitative and qualitative adverbs were found as part of various stylistic techniques: parcellations, personifications, refrans. Note the use of  Diego Torron of adverbs on -mente in a greater quantitative ratio in stories in general, and in particular, in the composition of poetic figures: anaphora, alliteration. A complex and diverse interaction of the adverb and the word defined by it was recorded, which contributes to the creation of stable collocations with metaphorical meaning: vagamente siniestros, sonre r amargamente. For further research, it may be of interest to analyze examples of the use of adverbs - lexical occasionalisms, oxymorons, the use of which enhances the expression of the narrative. Thus, based on the analyzed material, the fact that the formant -mente has not lost its productivity at the current stage of language development and is a characteristic feature of the artistic style of the modern Spanish language seems to be indisputable. The stylistic capabilities of adverbial units help to solve such author's tasks as evaluating and characterizing characters, creating narrative imagery, and achieving the necessary expressiveness of a literary text.