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Assignments for Self-Control. 2. What is there in common between litotes and under- statement?
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1. What is a litotes?
2. What is there in common between litotes and under-
statement?
3. Describe most frequently used structures of litotes.
Periphrasis is a very peculiar stylistic device which basically consists of using a roundabout form of expression instead of a simpler one, i.e. of using a more or less complicated syntactical structure instead of a word. Depending on the mechanism of this substitution, periphrases are classified into figurative (metonymic and metaphoric), and logical. The first group is made, in fact, of phrase-metonymies and phrase-metaphors, as you may well see from the following example: "The hospital was crowded with the surgically interesting products of the fighting in Africa" (I. Sh.) where the extended metonymy stands for "the wounded".
Logical periphrases are phrases synonymic with the words which were substituted by periphrases: "Mr. Du Pont was dressed in the conventional disguise with which Brooks Brothers
cover the shame of American "millionaires." (M. St.) "The con-ventional disguise" stands here for "the suit" and "the shame of American millionaires" - for "the paunch (the belly)". Because the direct nomination of the not too elegant feature of appearance was substituted by a roundabout description this periphrasis may be also considered euphemistic, as it offers a more polite qualification instead of a coarser one.
The main function of periphrases is to convey a purely individual perception of the described object. To achieve it the generally accepted nomination of the object is replaced by the description of one of its features or qualities, which seems to the author most important for the characteristic of the object, and which thus becomes foregrounded.
The often repeated periphrases become trite and serve as universally accepted periphrastic synonyms: "the gentle (soft, weak) sex" (women); "my better half" (my spouse); "minions of Law" (police), etc.
Exercise V. Analyse the given periphrases from the viewpoint of their semantic type, structure, function and originality:
1. Gargantuan soldier named Dahoud picked Ploy by the
head and scrutinized this convulsion of dungarees and despair
whose feet thrashed a yard above the deck. (Th. P.)
2. His face was red, the back of his neck overflowed
his collar and there had recently been published a second
edition of his chin. (P. G. W.)
3. His huge leather chairs were kind to the femurs. (R. W.)
4. "But Pickwick, gentlemen, Pickwick, this ruthless destroyer
of this domestic oasis in the desert of Goswell street!" (D.)
5. He would make some money and then he would come
back and marry his dream from Blackwood. (Dr.)
6. The villages were full of women who did nothing
but fight against dirt and hunger and repair the effects of
friction on clothes. (A. B.)
7. The habit of saluting the dawn with a bend of the elbow
was a hangover from college fraternity days. (Jn. B.)
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8. I took my obedient feet away from him. (W. G.)
9. I got away on my hot adolescent feet as quickly as
I could. (W. G.)
10. I am thinking an unmentionable thing about your
mother. (I. Sh.)
11. Jean nodded without turning and slid between two
vermilion-coloured buses so that two drivers simultaneously
used the same qualitative word. (G.)
12. During the previous winter I had become rather
seriously ill with one of those carefully named difficulties which are the whispers of approaching age. (J. St.)
13. A child had appeared among the palms, about a hundred
yards along the beach. He was a boy of perhaps six years,
sturdy and fair, his clothes torn, his face covered with a sticky
mess of fruit. His trousers had been lowered for an obvious
purpose and had only been pulled back half-way. (W. G.)
14. When I saw him again, there were silver dollars
weighting down his eyes. (T. C.)
15. She was still fat after childbirth; the destroyer of her
figure sat at the head of the table. (A. B.)
16. I participated in that delayed Teutonic migration known
as the Great War. (Sc. F.)
17. "Did you see anything in Mr. Pickwick's manner and
conduct towards the opposite sex to induce you to believe
all this?" (D.)
18. Bill went with him and they returned with a tray
of glasses, siphons and other necessaries of life. (Ch.)
19. It was the American, whom later we were to learn
to know and love as the Gin Bottle King, because of a
great feast of arms performed at an early hour in the
morning with a container of Mr. Gordon's celebrated product
as his sole weapon. (H.)
20. Jane set her bathing-suited self to washing the lunch
dishes. (Jn. B.)
21. Naturally, I jumped out of the tub, and before I had
thought twice, ran out into the living room in my birthday
suit. (В. М.)
22. For a single instant, Birch was helpless, his blood
curdling in his veins at the imminence of the danger, and
his legs refusing their natural and necessary office. (T.C.)
Assignments for Self-Control
1. Speak about semantic types of periphrasis.
2. In what cases can a logical or a figurative periphrasis
be also qualified as euphemistic?
3. What are the main stylistic functions of periphrases?
4. Which type of periphrasis, in your opinion, is most
favoured in contemporary prose and why?
Exercise VI. Now, after you have been acquainted with the semantics, structures and functions of major syntactical stylistic devices, you may proceed, in the summarizing form, to cases of their convergence, paying attention to each SD contributing to the general effect and of course, specifying those
which bear the main responsibility for the creation of additional information and the intensification of the basic one:
1. In Paris there must have been a lot of women not
unlike Mrs. Jesmond, beautiful women, clever women, cultured
women, exquisite, long-necked, sweet smelling, downy rats. (P.)
2. The stables - I believe they have been replaced by
television studios - were on West Sixty-sixth street Holly
selected for me an old sway-back black-and-white mare:
"Don't worry, she's safer than a cradle." Which, in my case,
was a necessary guarantee, for ten-cent pony rides at
childhood carnivals were the limit of my equestrian expe-
rience. (T. C.)
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3. However, there was no time to think more about the
matter, for the fiddles and harp began in real earnest. Away
went Mr. Pickwick-hands across, down the middle to the
very end of the room, and half way up the chimney, back
again to the door - poussette everywhere - loud stamp on the ground - ready for the next couple - off again - all the figure over once more - another stamp to beat out the time – next couple, and the next, and the next again - never was such going! (D.)
4. Think of the connotations of "murder", that awful word:
the loss of emotional control, the hate, the spite, the
selfishness, the broken glass, the blood, the cry in the throat,
the trembling blindness that results in the irrevocable act,
the helpless blow. Murder is the most limited of gestures.
(J. H.)
5. There is an immensity of promenading on cratches and
off, with sticks and without; and a great deal of conversa-
tion, and liveliness and pleasantry. (D.)
6. We sat down at the table. The jaws got to work around
the table. (R. W.)
7. Babbitt stopped smoking at least once a month. He did
everything in fact except stop smoking. (S. L.)
8. I'm interested in any number of things, enthusiastic about
nothing. Everything is significant and nothing is finally important.
(Jn. B.)
9. Lord Tompson owns 148 newspapers in England and Canada.
He is the most influential Fleet-Street personality. His fortune
amounts to 300 mln. He explains his new newspaper purchases
so: "I buy newspapers to make money. I make money to buy more
newspapers. I buy more newspapers to make more money, etc.,
etc. without end." (M. St.)
10. He illustrated these melodramatic morsels by handing the
tankard to himself with great humility, receiving it haughtily,
drinking from it thirstily, and smacking his lips fiercely. (D.)
11. The cigarette tastes rough, a noseful of straw. He puts it out.
Never again. (U.)
12. The certain mercenary young person felt that she must not
sell her sense of what was right and what was wrong, and what
was true and what was false, and what was just and what was
unjust, for any price that could be paid to her by any one alive.
(J. F.)
13. A girl on a hilltop, credulous, plastic, young: drinking
the air she longed to drink life. The eternal aching comedy of
expectant youth. (S. L.)
14. I have made him my executor. Nominated, constituted
and appointed him. In my will. (D.)
15. This is what the telegram said: Has Cyril called yet? On no
account introduce him into theatrical circles. Vitally important.
Letter follows. (P. G. W.)
16. In November a cold unseen stranger whom the doctors
called Pneumonia, stalked about the colony touching one here and
there with icy fingers. Mr. Pneumonia was not what you would call
a chivalric old gentleman. (O'N.)
17. He came to us, you see, about three months ago.
A skilled and experienced waiter. Has given complete satisfaction.
He has been in England about five years. (Ch.)
18. If it had not been for these things, I might have lived
out my life, talking at street corners to scorning men. I might have
died, unmarked, unknown, a failure. Now we are not a failure.
This is our career and our triumph. Never in our full life can we
hope to do such work for tolerance, for justice, for man's
understanding of man, as now we do by an accident. Our
words - our lives - our pains - nothing! The taking of our lives-lives of a good shoe-maker and a poor fish-peddler - all! That last moment belongs to us - that agony is our triumph! (H. R.)
19. The main thought uppermost in Five's mind was that every-
thing in the war was so organized, and handled with such matter-
of-fact dispatch. Like a business. Like a regular business.
And yet at the bottom of it was blood: blood, mutilation, death.
It seemed weird, wacky to Five. (J.)
20. Constance had said: 'If ever I'm a widow, I won't wear
them, positively," in the tone of youth; and Mrs. Baines had
replied: "I hope you won't, my dear." That was over twenty
years ago, but Constance perfectly remembered. And now, she
was a widow! How strange and how impressive was life! And she
had kept her word; not without hesitations; for though times were
changed, Bursley was still Bursley; but she had kept it. (A. B.)
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21. The reasons why John Harmon should not come to life:
Because he has passively allowed these dear old faithful friends to pass into possession of the property. Because he sees them happy with it. Because they have virtually adopted Bella, and will provide for her. Because there is affection enough in her heart to develop into something enduringly good, under favourable conditions. Because her faults have been intensified by her place in my father's will and she is already growing better. Because her marriage with John Harmon, after what I have heard from her own lips, would be a shocking mockery. Because if John Harmon comes to life and does not marry her, the property falls into the very hands that hold it now. (D.)
22. In Arthur Calgary's fatigued brain the word seemed to
dance on the wall. Money! Money! Money! Like a motif in an opera,
he thought. Mrs. Argyle's money! Money put into trust! Money put
into an annuity! Residual estate left to her husband! Money got
from the bank! Money in the bureau drawer! Hester rushing
out to her car with no money in her purse... Money found on
Jacko, money that he swore his mother had given him. (Ch.)
23. Mr. Pickwick related, how he had first met Jingle; how
he had eloped with Miss Wardle; how he had cheerfully resigned
the lady for pecuniary considerations; how he had entrapped
him into a lady's boarding school; and how he, Mr. Pickwick,
now felt it his duty to expose his assumption for his present name
and rank. (D.)
24. "And with a footman up behind, with a bar across, to keep
his legs from being poled! And with a coachman up in front sinking
down into a seat big enough for three of him, all covered with
upholstery in green and white! And with two bay horses tossing
their heads and stepping higher than they trot long-ways! And with
you and me leaning back inside, as grand as ninepence!" (D.)
25. I looked at him. I know I smiled. His face looked as though it were plunging into water. I couldn't touch him. I wanted so to touch him I smiled again and my hands got wet on the telephone and then for the moment I couldn't see him at all and I shook my head and my face was wet and I said, "I'm glad. I'm glad. Don't you worry. I'm glad." (J. B.)
26. What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows.
No time to see when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see in broad day light,
Streams full of stars like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care
We have no time to stand and stare. (W. H. D.)
CHAPTER IV. TYPES OF NARRATION
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