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Lexical expressive means and stylistic devices
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Simile is a device based upon an analogy between two things, which are discovered to possess some feature in common otherwise being entirely dissimilar. The formal elements of a simile are; 1) a pair of objects; 2) a connective.
I wondered lonely as a cloud.
My heart is like a singing bird.
The gap caused by the fall of the house had changed the aspect of the street as the loss of the tooth changes that of a face.
(like, as, as if, as though, such as; -wise, -like)
“He resembled a professor in a five-elm college.” (S.Lewis)
“Clouds of tawny dust … flung themselves table-cloth -wise among the tops of parched trees.” (R.Kipling)
“His mind was restless, but it worked perversely and thoughts jerked through his brain like the misfiring of a defective carburetor. (S.Maugham)
Metaphor – is a relation between the dictionary and contextual logical meanings based on the similarity of certain properties of the two corresponding concepts.
“ The last colours of sunset …were dripping over the edge of the flat world.”(G.Green)
“Her eyes were two profound and menacing gun-barrels. ” (A.Huxley)
“I saw him coming out of the anesthetic of her charm. ” (J.Thurber)
Extended metaphor:
“The slash of sun on the wall above him slowly knifes down, cuts across his chest, becomes a coin on the floor and vanishes.” (J.Updike)
“The Jura mountains form the western frontier of Switzerland with France. Their summits are bare and windswept; foaming torrents splash noisily through rocky ravines, armies of dark pines march up the steep slopes in serried ranks. ” (“Diversity of the Swiss Jura” ”The Times”)
(Cнижение образности в переводе: «Темные сосны, словно солдаты, поднимаются сомкнутыми рядами по крутым склонам.»)
“They had reached the mysterious mill where the red tape was spun, and Yates was determined to cut through it here and now.” (St.Heym “Crusaders”)
(Замена образа: (red tape – бюрократизм, волокита) «Они уперлись в стену штабной бюрократии, но Йейтс твердо решил тут же пробить эту стену.»)
Personification, a kind of metaphor, is a device which endows a thing or a phenomenon with features peculiar of a human being.
“My impatience has shown its heels to my politeness.” (R.Stevenson)
“Thou, nature, art my goddess. ” (W.Shakespeare)
Zoozemy isa kind of metaphor where names of animals are used to underline human features.
A pig; a book-worm; a goose; a lion; a monkey.
Dog, hound, puppy.
Bulls / bears.
Horse-laugh, horse-sense.
To ferret out; to fish for complements; to monkey; to rat; to smell rat.
To have a bee in one’s bonnet; to flog a dead horse.
Metonymy is also based upon analogy, but, contrary to the simile and metaphor, there is an objectively existing relationship between the object named and the object implied.
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“Director Rippleton had also married money. ” (S.Lewis)
“Then they came in. Two of them, a man with long fair moustaches and a silent dark man. … Definitely, the moustache and I had nothing in common.” (D.Lessing)
Metonymy has two variants: synechdoche and metonymic antonomasia.
Synechdoche is based on quantitative relationship:
A part stands for the whole:
ABC – alphabet; a hand – a worker;
Big Wig – V.I.P; a head – a chief.
The whole stands for a part:
The fox goes well with your hat.
The container stands for what is contained:
I don’t like this dish.
The hall applauded.
The whole school came to the theatre.
The organ stands for the ability:
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. ” (W.Shakespeare)
He has a good eye for old books.
The material stands for the object it is made of:
silver; iron; tin; gold.
The instrument stands for the person who uses it:
He is a big pen.
He is a sword.
“Well, Mr.Weller, says the gentl’mn, you’re a very good whip, and can do what you like with your horses.” (Ch.Dickens)
The name of the author stands for his books:
I like to read Dickens.
The Captain had fallen into possession of a complete Shakespeare.
The name of the flower stands for the colour:
violet.
The feeling stands for the object of the feeling:
Oh, my love.
Antonomasia is the use of a proper name for a common one.
Antonomasia may be metaphoric, i.e. based upon a similarity between two things:
“The Gioconda smile”. (A.Huxley)
Metonymic antonomasia:
The name of a person stands for the thing he has created:
Mackintosh – a waterproof coat patented by C.Mackintosh, inventor.
Pullman – a railway carriage or motor coach with especially comfortable seats; sleeping-car (American designer).
Personalities:
Garribaldi; Sandwich; Victoria (a two-wheeled carriage for two persons).
Geographical names:
countries towns islands, mountains
china berlin canary
holland hawana madera
morocco winchester cheviot
Token names: Scrooge; Miss Blue Eyes;
“I say this to our American friends. Mr. Facing-Both-Ways does not get very far in this world”. (“The Times”)
Epithet is an attributive characterization of a person, thing or phenomenon. Poetic epithet and a simple adjective. Poetic epithet is based on the interplay of emotive and logical meaning in an attributive word, phrase or even sentence. The epithet is markedly subjective and evaluative. The ties with the noun are generally contextual. Epithet creates an image.
“Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. (H.Lee)
Simple adjective, a logical attribute in the sentence, is purely objective, non-evaluating. It indicates one of the inherent properties of the thing spoken about: green meadows; white snow; round table; blue sky.
In stable word combinations the ties between the attribute and the noun defined are very close, and the whole combination is viewed as a linguistic entity. Combinations of this type appear as a result of the frequent use of certain definite epithets with definite nouns. The predictability of such epithets is very great (language epithets): ‘sweet smile’, ‘deep feeling’, ‘pitch darkness’, ‘powerful influence’.
Fixed epithet (the connection between the epithet and the noun is so strong that they build a specific unit which does not lose its poetic flavour): true love; dead silence; sweet Sir.
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Structural classification:
1. simple epithet consists of one word (adjective or adverb, modifying respectfully nouns or verbs):
“The glow of an angry sunset.” (Ch.Dickens)
2. compound epithet:
heart-burning sigh; cloud-shapen giant; sylph-like figures.
3. phrase epithet includes into one epithet an extended phrase or a completed sentence:
The never-to-be-forgotten day.
The don’t-touch-me-or-I’ll-kill-you expression of his face.
I-don’t-care appearance.
4. reversed epithet is based on illogical syntactical relations between the modifier and the modified: a devil of a job;
“A devil of a sea rolls in that bay.” (G.G.Byron)
the devil of a woman = a devilish woman;
the giant of a man = a gigantic man.
Semantic classification:
1. Metaphoric epithet is based on metaphor:
“The submarine laughter was swelling, rising, ready to break the surface of silence.”(A.Huxley)
“The dawn with silver-sandalled feet crept like a frightened girl.” (O.Wilde)
2. Transferred epithet transfers the quality of one object upon its nearest neughbour:
He lay all night on his sleepless pillow.
Restless pace; unbreakfasted morning;
Isabel shrugged an indifferent shoulder.
The sound of the solemn bells.
The smiling attention of the stranger.
Periphrasis is a combination of words used instead of the word denoting the object. It indicates a new feature of the notion. It both names and describes.
Periphrastic synonyms: the cap and gown (“student body”), my better half (“my wife”), the seven-hilled city (“Rome”).
Stylistic periphrasis:
“I understand you are poor, and wish to earn money by nursing the little boy, my son, who has been so prematurely deprived of what can never be replaced. (Ch.Dickens ) - (mother).
“The lamp lighter made his nightly failure in attemting to brighten up the street with gas. ” (Ch.Dickens) - (lit the street lamps).
1. Attic salt – аттическая соль, утонченный ум, остроумие;
The three sisters – богини судьбы;
The Prince of Darkness – принц тьмы.
2. John Bull – a typical Englishman;
The three R’s - r eading, w r iting, ‘ r ithmetic;
The Iron Duke – Duke of Wellington.
- The Land of Cakes – Scotland;
The Big Apple – New York.
The eternal city - Rome.
Euphemism is a word or a phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by a more acceptable one.
To die - to pass away to depart to kick the bucket
to expire to join the majority to go west
to be no more to give up the ghost
Religious: gosh, my (god);
Medica l: intoxication (drunkenness); mentally-ill patients (the insane);
Parliamentary:
“When Sir Winston Churchill, some years ago termed a parliamentary opponent a ‘purveyor of terminological inexactitudes’, every one in the chamber knew he meant ‘liar’. Sir Winston had been ordered by the Speaker to withdraw a stronger epithet. So he used the euphemism, which became famous and is still used in the Commons. It conveyed the insult without sounding offensive, and it satisfied the Speaker.” (James Feron “In Commons, a Lie is Inexactitude”, “The New York Times”, 1964)
Political: undernourishment of children in India (starvation).
Real euphemisms: a four- letter word (an obscenity);
“a woman of a certain type” (a prostitute).
Hyperbole (overstatement) is an expression of an idea in an exceedingly exaggerate language.
“And I will love thee still, my dear,
Till all the seas gang dry. ” (R.Burns)
“I’d cross the world to find you a pin. ” (A.Coppard)
“These three words (Dombey and Son) conveyed the one idea of Mr.Dombey’s life. The earth was made for Dombey and Son to trade in and the sun and moon were made to give them light. Rivers and seas were formed to float their ships; rainbows gave them promise of fair weather; winds blew for or against their enterprises; stars and planets circled in their orbits to preserve inviolate a system of which they were the centre.” (Ch.Dickens)
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Language hyperbole: a thousand pardons; scared to death; immensely obliged; I’d give the world to see him.
Meioses (lessening, understatement) is an expression of an idea in an excessively restrained language.
He knows a thing or two.
How do you like this pond? (about the ocean)
Really! (You amaze me!)
Rather! (Superb!)
I don’t care a pin / straw about it.
Irony is a stylistic device by which the words are made to convey the meaning opposite to their direct meaning. It is an intentional distraction of the primary meaning. Both the writer and the reader understand that the word is used in the meaning contrary to its primary direct meaning.
It is the context that produces the irony. The word containing irony is marked by a stress and specific intonation.
“It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one’s pocket.”
(Context) “This coherent speech was interrupted by the entrance of the Rochester coachman, to announce that….” (Ch.Dickens)
A cliché i s generally defined as an expression that becomes trite. It has lost its precise meaning by constant reiteration; in other words it has become stereotyped.
Rosy dreams of youth; deceptive smile;
(the press) effective guarantees; the whip and carrot policy; buffer zone; bumper-to bumper traffic; crushing defeat; diamond in the rough; stony silence.
“She was unreal, like a picture and yet had an elegance which made Kitty feel all thumbs. ” (S.Maugham)
Proverbs and sayings are brief statements showing in condensed form the accumulated life experience of the community and serving as conventional practical symbols for abstract ideas. They are usually didactic and image bearing. Many of them have metre, rhyme and alliteration; brevity manifests itself also in omission of connectives.
They can be handled not in their fixed form but with modifications.
“Come!” he said, ” m ilk is spilt. ”(J.Galsworthy) (from ‘It is no use crying over spilt milk’)
“ Proof of the Pudding ” (Headline of the editorial in the Daily Worker) (from ‘The proof of the pudding is in the eating’)
An epigram is a stylistic device akin to a proverb, the only difference being that epigrams are coined by individuals whose names we know, while proverbs are the coinage of the people.
“Mighty is he who conquers himself.” (S.Maugham)
“A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” (Keets)
A Quotation i s a repetition of a phrase or statement from a book, speech and the like used by way of authority, illustration, proof or as a basis for further speculation on the matter in hand.
“Ecclesiastes said, “that all is vanity” –
Most modern preachers say the same, or show it
By their examples of the Christianity…” (G.G.Byron)
Allusion is a reference to specific places, persons, literary characters or historical events that, by some association, have come to stand for a certain thing or an idea.
“No little Grandgrind had ever associated a cow in a field with the famous cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt, orwith that yet more famous cow that swallowed Tom Thumb; it had never heard of those celebrities.” (Ch.Dickens “Hard Times”) (“ The House that Jack Built”; “The History of Tom Thumb”)
I don’t know him. He is single-eyed like the famous admiral. (Admiral Nelson)
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A newspaper headline: “ ’Pie in the sky’ for Railmen” (“Daily Worker”) (the refrain of the workers’ song: “ You’ll get pie in the sky when you die. ”)
The Tories were accused in the House of Commons yesterday of “ living in an Alice in Wonderland world ” on the question of nuclear arms for Germany. (L.Carrol “Alice in Wonderland ”)
C.Bernstein, B.Woodward “ All the President’s Men ”. («Вся президентская рать»)
(“Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall…
… all the King’s men… (…вся королевская рать)
cannot put Humpty Dumpty together again.” –/nursery rhyme/).
Decomposition of set phrases (Violation of phraseological units) consists in reviving the independent meanings of the component parts. In other words it makes each word of the combination acquire its literal meaning.
“Little John was born with a silver spoon in his mouth which was rather curly and large. ” (J.Galsworthy)
Why wait to see which way Smith jumps. - К чему ждать, что предпримет Смит? / to see (watch) which way the cat jumps – занимать выжидательную позицию/
The Chancellor of the Exchequer’ s finger in rail pay pie. –Министр финансов вмешался в конфликт по поводу повышения заработной платы железнодорожникам. /to have a finger in the pie – участвовать в каком-то деле, приложить к чему-то руку/
To swim with the new tide. – пойти по новому пути. / to swim with the tide – плыть по течению/
Oxymoron is a combination of two words (mostly an adjective and a known or an adverb with an adjective) in which the meanings of the two clash, being opposite in sense.
(awfully nice/ frightfully happy; mighty small)
“Oh, the sweetness of the pain. ” (J.Keats)
“Doomed to liberty. ” (O.Henry)
“I despise its very vastness and power. It has the poorest millionaires, the littlest great men, the haughtiest beggars, the plainest beauties, the lowest sky-scrapers, the dolefulest pleasures of any town I ever saw.” (O.Henry “The Duel”)
Paradox is a statement contradictory to what is accepted as a self-evident or proverbial truth.
“I think that life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about it.” (O.Wilde)
“I never like giving information to the police. It saves them trouble.” (G.Green)
“Wine costs money, blood costs nothing.” (G.B.Shaw)
Zeugma is the use of a word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations to two adjacent words in the context, the semantic relations being on the one hand literal, and on the other, transferred.
Mr. S. took his hat and his leave. /to take leave/
“He had a good taste for wine and whiskey and an emergency bell in his bedroom.” (G.Green)
“Either you or your head must be off. ” (L.Carrol) /to be off/
Pun (paronomasia, a play on words) is a figure of speech emerging as an effect created by words similar or identical in their sound form and contrastive or incompatible in meaning.
“The Importance of Being Earnest " (O.Wilde)
“ Bow to the board,” said Bumble. Oliver brushed away two or three tears that were lingering in his eyes; and seeing no board but the table, fortunately bowed to that. ” (Ch.Dickens “Oliver Twist”)
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