10. Oxymoron

It's a device which consists in joining together words of contradictory meaning. In a laconic way oxymoron shows the existing discrepancy (противоречие) of the object. We distinguish the following types:

Adjective + noun: sweet pain

Adjective + adjective: the biggest little town;

Verb + preposition + noun: to ruin by civilization;

Verb + adverb: to cry silently;

Noun + preposition + noun: victory in defeat

11. Antonomasia

The interplay between logical and nominal meanings of the word is called Antonomasia. Both the meanings should be materialized simultaneously in the word. If only one meaning is materialized in the context there is no stylistic device.

There are several types of antonomasia:

1) The name of a famous personality may stand for a characteristic feature: Romeo (for a person in love); the Napoleon of crime (genius);

2) the name of the place for the event that took place there: Waterloo - defeat;

3) the name of some establishment (or the policy): The White House - American policy; Fleet street - English mass media; Old Bailey - the Court system;

4) geographical names for the things that came into being there: China - china; Champaign - champaign;

5) names of things after the names of their inventors: Sandwich, Machintosh.

Antonomasia may be l)metaphoric and 2)metonymic

1) metaphoric antonomasia is based upon a similarity between two things:

- a proper noun is used to reveal the most striking feature in the character (Othello - for a jealous person; Don Juan - for an amorous person);

- a common noun is used as a proper name, the so-called 'speaking names' : Example Bekky Sharp; Mrs Snakes; Sir Pattern; Mr Murdstone (murder+stone);

2) metonymic antonomasia consists in picking out one particular aspect of a complex thing or idea to make the thing itself easier to comprehend, e.g.:

He has married money.

12. A simile is based on the analogy between two things which are discovered to have some common feature, though they are entirely unlike each other. Two objects which are compared, the formal connective may be expressed by conjunctions (as if, as though, such as), adverbs (like, unlike), verbs (resemble, seem, suggest, remind), suffixes (like) etc. e. g., She seemed nothing more than a doll.

A simile should not be mixed up with ordinary comparison. A simile is based on the comparison of things belonging to entirely different classes; a comparison deals with two objects of the same class. E.g. She is as clever as her mother

He avoided her as if she were an infections disease.

She was like tigress ready to jump

13. Periphrasis

Periphrasis is a unit of poetic speech which both names and describes. We speak of periphrasis when we have the name of a person or a thing substituted by a descriptive phrase but the substitution is not based on logical association. It is a poetic synonym of a word usually expressed by a phrase used instead of a name of an object which isn’t considered poetic or aesthetic enough.

Man in the street - an ordinary person; Man in Grey – soldiers; My better half - wife / husband