• Oxymoron vs. Antithesis

oxymoron - a single word combination, syntactically interdependent words

sad and pleasant thoughts, sweet hatred

antithesis - at least two word combinations / sentences

pleasant thoughts and sad meditations

3. Combination of inequivalent meanings

• Climax/gradation (ladder) - an increasing gradation of meanings

The eight-five cent dinner tasted like a discarded mail bag and was served by a waiter who looked as if he would slug me for a quarter, cut my throat for six bits and bury me at sea in a barrel of concrete for a dollar and a half plus sales tax. (R. Chandler)

На серці в нього ставало так погано, прикро, болісно.

Він так зажурився, аж скис.

Typology

1.Logical widening of notions

Not only brute creatures, but men; nor they only, but likewise gods, yield to the violence of love.

2.emotional and emphatic gradation of tension

The first canvas caused a faint titter, the second a decided ripple of amusement, and by the time the final canvas was exhibited the crowd was laughing heartily. (A.J. Cronin)

3.quantitative / numerical increase

They looked at hundreds of houses; they climbed thousands of stairs; they inspected innumerable kitchens. (W.S. Maugham)

Anticlimax - a decreasing arrangement of meanings

Mess-jacket looked at me with his silent sleek smile. I watched it until it was no longer a smile, no longer a face, no longer anything but a dark figure against the landing lights. (R. Chandler)

If John’s eyes fill with tears, you may have no doubt: he has been eating raw onions.

Pun / paronomasia / play on words

- What is the meaning of the word matrimony?

- Father says it isn’t a word, it’s a sentence.

Types

1. Pun based on polysemy and homonymy

The quickest way to break a bad habit is to drop it.

Хотів розвалитися у кріслі, а воно не витримало і розвалилося

I only got a headache in my feet, and corns on my brain. (J. Cary)

2. Pun based on similarity of pronunciation

- What kept you out of class yesterday - acute indigestion?

- No, a cute engineer.

is used to achieve a humorous effect

• Zeugma ( to join/to combine) - a simultaneous realisation of two meanings of a polysemantic unit.

Everything was short including tobacco and people’s tempers. (E. Hemingway)

Identical structurally, but different semantically

He possessed two false teeth and a kind heart.

It was my elder brother - her darling - who was to inherit her resoluteness, her stubbornness, her table silver and some of her eccentricities. (J. Cheever )

Wilcher was a rich lawyer, with a face like a bad orange. Yellow and blue. A little grasshopper of a man. Always on the jump. Inside and out. In his fifties. The hopping fifties. And fierce as a mad mouse. All eaten up with lawfulness and rage; ready to bite himself for being respectable. (J. Cary)

• Stylistic syntax

• 1. The expressive value of syntax

• No correlation between the length and the expressiveness of a sentence

The horror! The flight! The exposure! The police! (Th. Dreiser)