Graphon, thus individualizing the character's speech, adds to his plausibility, vividness, memorability. At the same time, graphon is very good at conveying the atmosphere of authentic live communication, of the informality of the speech act. Some amalgamated forms, which are the result of strong assimilation, became cliches in contemporary prose dialogue: "gimme" (give me), "lemme" (letme), "gonna" (going to), "gotta" (got to), "coupla" (couple of), "mighta" (might have), "willya" (will you), etc.

This flavour of informality and authenticity brought graphon popularity with advertizers. Big and small eating places invite customers to attend their "Pik-kwik store", or "The Donut (doughnut) Place", or the "Rite Bread Shop", or the "Wok-in Fast Food Restaurant", etc. The same is true about newspaper, poster and TV advertizing: "Sooper Class Model" cars, "Knee-hi" socks, "Rite Aid" medicines. A recently published book on Cockney was entitled by the authors "The Muwer Tongue"; on the back flaps of big freight-cars one can read "Folio me", etc. Graphical changes may reflect not only the peculiarities of, pronunciation, but are also used to convey the intensity of the stress, emphasizing and thus foregrounding the stressed words. To such purely graphical means, not involving the violations, we should refer all changes of the type (italics, capitalization), spacing of graphemes (hyphenation, multiplication) and of lines. The latter was widely exercised in Russian poetry by V. Mayakovsky, famous for his "steps" in verse lines, or A. Voznesensky. In English the most often referred to "graphical imagist" v/as E. E. Cummings.

According to the frequency of usage, variability of functions, the first place among graphical means of foregrounding is occupied by italics. Besides italicizing words, to add to their logical or emotive significance, separate syllables and morphemes may also be emphasized by italics (which is highly characteristic of D. Salinger or T. Capote). Intensity of speech (often in commands) is transmitted through the multiplication of a grapheme or capitalization of the word, as in Babbitt's shriek "Alllll aboarrrrrd", or in the desperate appeal in A. Huxley's Brave New World - "Help. Help. HELP." Hyphenation of a wofa suggests the rhymed or clipped manner in which it is uttered as in the humiliating comment from Fl. O'Connor's story - "grinning like a chim-pan-zee".

Summing up the informational options of the graphical arrangement of a word (a line, a discourse), one sees their varied application for recreating the individual and social peculiarities of the speaker, the atmosphere of the communication act - all aimed at revealing and emphasizing the author's viewpoint

ASSIGNMENTS FOR SELF-CONTROL

1. What is sound-instrumenting?

2. What cases of sound-instrumenting do you know?

3. What is graphon?

4. What types and functions of graphon do you know?

5. What is achieved by the graphical changes of writing - its type, the spacing of graphemes and lines?

6. Which phono-graphical means are predominantly used in prose and which ones in poetry?

EXERCISES

I. Indicate the causes and effects of the following cases of alliteration, assonance and onomatopoeia:

1. Streaked by a quarter moon, the Mediterranean shushed gently into the beach. (I.Sh.)

2. He swallowed the hint with a gulp and a gasp and a grin. (R. K.)

3. His wife was shrill, languid, handsome and horrible. (Sc.F.)

4. The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, the furrow followed free. (S. C.)

5. The Italian trio tut-tutted their tongues at me. (T.C.)

6. "You, lean, long, lanky lath of a lousy bastard!" (O'C.)

7. To sit in solemn silence in a dull dark dock, In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock, Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock From a cheap and chippy chopper On a big black block. (W.C.)

8. They all lounged, and loitered, and slunk about, with as little spirit or purpose as the beasts in a menagerie. (D.)

9. "Luscious, languid and lustful, isn't she?" "Those are not the correct epithets. She is - or rather was - surly, lustrous and sadistic." (E.W.)

10. Then, with an enormous, shattering rumble, sludge-puff, sludge-puff, the train came into the station. (A.S.)

11. "Sh-sh."

"But I am whispering." This continual shushing annoyed him. (A.H.)

12. Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky. (Ch. R.)

13. Dreadful young creatures - squealing and squawking. (C.)

14. The quick crackling of dry wood aflame cut through the night. (Sl.H.)

15. Here the rain did not fall. It was stopped high above by that roof of green shingles. From there it dripped down slowly, leaf to leaf, or ran down the stems and branches. Despite the heaviness of the downpour which now purred loudly in their ears from just outside, here there was only a low rustle of slow occasional dripping. (J.)

II. Indicate the kind of additional information about the speaker supplied by graphon:

1. "Hey," he said, entering the library. "Where's the heart section?" "The what?"