Lecture 6

• Structural varieties of metaphors :

Antonomasia - the stylistic use of proper names

1. the use of a proper name for a common noun.

He is the Napoleon of crime C.Doyle)

But he kept snowing her, in this Abraham Lincoln, sincere voice. ( Salinger)

Ви ж просто Шаляпін, такий голос маєте!

2.the use of common nouns as proper names - speaking / token / talking names: Mr. Murdstone; Mrs. Snake; Miss Toady

Лазар ненавидів тюремного наглядача, якому тюрма дала прізвище Морда.

is used - as a means of characterisation

Personification - ascribing human behaviour and thoughts to inanimate objects

She had been asleep, always, and now life was thundering imperatively at all her doors. (J. London)

Сонце стояло якесь безпомічне і нерішуче. Боялось навіть моргнути.

is used - to create imagery

• Allegory = the expression of an abstract idea through a concrete image

1. proverbs/sayings: It’s time to turn swords into ploughs.

All is not gold that glitters.

2.fables

3.fairy tales

• Epithet - interaction of logical and emotive meanings which produces a subjective evaluation

The iron hate in Soul pushed him on again. ( M.Wilson)

Logical attributes vs. Epithets proper

blank sheet of paper – blank look

iron gate – iron lady

I got up and started towards the door in a dead silence. (R. Chandler)

• Typology:

I. Semantically

1. dead /associated / fixed / conventional / standing epithets: true love, Merry Christmas, fair lady, dark forest - is devoid of stylistic meaning

2. affective/emotive epithets : gorgeous, atrocious;

3. unassociated / figurative:

a ghost-like face

It was a sad old bathrobe (J.Salinger)

helpless loneliness

II. Structurally

1.simple: an angry sky;

2.compound: a heart-burning desire

3.two-step structures: a pompously majestic female

4.phrasal /clausal: a don’t-care attitude,

head-to-toe beauty, go-to-devil request ,

I-don’t-want-to-do-it feeling

підхід “одна баба сказала”,

робота “не бий лежачого”

5. inverted/reversed/metaphorical (expressed by an “of-phrase):

a toy of a girl

the toy of the girl (ordinary noun phrase) - the toy of a girl (inverted epithet)

A ghost of a smile appeared on Soames’s face. (J. Galsworthy)

is used - to convey the subjective attitude of the writer

Metaphor vs. Metonymy

Metonymy

1. contiguity

2. one semantic domain: dressed in silk

3. widening of lexical meaning (The hall applauded)

4. one object doesn’t exclude the other (The blue nose came into the room.)

5. the function of identification/nomination (the theme): The bottle-neck coloured.

Metaphor

1. likeness/similarity

2. two semantic domains: Love is a red rose.

3. narrowing of lexical meaning. (He is a bear)

4. one image excludes the other (the sky lamp of the night = the moon)

5. the predicative function (the rheme): She was a fox. But this fox was especially cunning.

• 3. Transfer of meaning based on the difference of two meanings

Irony (concealed mockery) - words acquire meanings opposite to their primary language meanings

The house itself was not so much. It was smaller than Buckingham Palace, rather grey for California, and probably had fewer windows then the Chrysler Building. (R. Chandler)

Shades of ironic meaning

WIT IRONY SATIRE CYNICISM SARCASM SARDONICISM

Irony foregrounds not the logical, but the evaluative meaning

I looked at the First of the Barons. He was eating salad - taking a whole lettuce leaf on his fork and absorbing it slowly, rabbit-wise - a fascinating process to watch.

(K. Mansfield)