6. Figures of opposition

    This group of semasiological SD is characterized by the combination in context of two or more words or word-groups with opposite meanings. Their relations are either objectively opposite or are interpreted as such by the speaker. Here we refer antithesis and oxymoron.     Antithesis (Greek - opposition) is a stylistic device which presents two contrasting ideas in close proximity in order to stress the contrast. There are several variants of antithesis based on different relations of the ideas expressed:  1) opposition of features possessed by the same referent, e.g. Some people have much to live on, and little to live for (O.Wilde); 2) opposition of two or more different referents having contrasting features, e.g. Their pre-money wives did not go together with their post-money daughters /E.Hemingway/; 3) opposition of referents having not only contrasting feature but embracing a wider range of features, e.g. New England had a native literature, while Virginia had none; numerous industries, while Virginia was all agricultural /Th.Dreiser/.     Antithesis often goes along with other stylistic features: anaphoric repetition, parallelism, chiasmus, in particular. It is widely used in all kinds of speech: fiction, publicistic, scientific, and colloquial English. It performs various stylistic functions: stressing the contrast and rhythmically organizing the utterance. Due to the last quality antithesis is widely used in poetry in combination with anaphora, epiphora, and alliteration.        Oxymoron – (Greek: oxymoron – witty – foolish) is also a combination of opposite meanings which exclude each other. But in this case, the two semantically contrasting ideas are expressed by syntactically interdependent words (in predicative, attributive or adverbial phrases), e.g. He was certain the whites could easily detect his adoring hatred to them /R.Wright/.     Oxymoron reveals the contradictory sides of one and the same phenomenon. One of its elements discloses some objectively existing feature while the other serves to convey the author’s personal attitude towards this quality (pleasantly ugly, crowded loneliness, unanswerable reply). Such semantic incompatibility does not only create unexpected combinations of words, violating the existing norms of compatibility, but reveals some unexpected qualities of the denotate as well.      As soon as an oxymoron gets into circulation, it loses its stylistic value, becoming trite: pretty bad, awfully nice, terribly good.     Original oxymorons are created by the authors to make the utterance emotionally charged, vivid, and fresh, e.g. Oh brawling love! Oh loving hate! Oh heavy lightness! Serious vanity! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! /W. Shakespeare/.

7. Figures of unequality

    Relations of unequality are the relations of meanings of words and word-combinations with differ in their emotive intensiveness or logical importance. To this group we refer: 1) figures based on actualizing the emotional power of the utterance (climax or anticlimax); 2) figures based on two different meanings of words and word-combinations (pun, zeugma).     Climax, or gradation, (Latin: gradatio – gradualness; Greek: climax – a ladder) is a structure in which every successive word, phrase, or sentence is emotionally stronger or logically more important than the preceding one, e.g. Like a well, like a vault, like a tomb, the prison had no knowledge of the brightness outside /Ch.Dickens/.     There are three types of climax: 1) the arrangement of some lexical units characterizing the object in the same emotional direction, e.g. As he wondered and wondered what to do, he first rejected a stop as impossible, then as improbable, then as quite dreadful. /W.S.Gilbert/; 2) the arrangement of lexical units with logical widening of notions, e.g. For that one instant there was no one else in the room, in the house, in the world, besides themselves. /M.Wilson/; 3) emphatic repetition and enumeration, e.g. Of course it is important. Incredibly, urgently, desperately important /D.Sayers/.     Gradation is widely used in fiction and the publicistic style. It is one of the main means of emotional and logical influence of a text upon the reader and listener.     Anticlimax presents a structure in which every successive word, phrase, or sentence is emotionally or logically less strong than the preceding one, e.g. Fledgeby hasn’t heard anything. "No, there’s not a word of news,” says Lammle. "Not a particle,” adds Boots. "Not an atom,” chimes in Brewer /Ch.Dickens/. We can distinguish two types of anticlimax:  1) gradual drop in intensity; 2) sudden break in emotive power. In this case, emotive and logical importance is accumulated only to be unexpectedly brought up to a sudden break, e.g. He was unconsolable – for an afternoon /J.Galsworthy/.     Anticlimax is mostly used as a means of achieving a humorous effect.      Pun is a device based on polisemy, homonymy, or phonetic similarity to achieve a humorous effect. There are several kinds of pun: 1) puns based on polysemy. They had the appearance of men to whom life had appeared as a reversible coat – seamy on both sides. /O.Henry/;  2) puns based on complete or partial homonymy: Diner: Is it customary to tip a waiter in this restaurant? Waiter: Why-ah-yes, sir. Diner: Then hand me a tip. I’ve waited three quarters of an hour. 3) puns based on phonetic similarity:  -I’ve spent last summer in a very pretty city of Switzerland. -Bern? -No, I almost froze.     Pun is used for satirical and humorous purposes. Many jokes are based on puns.     Zeugma (Greek: zeugyana – to join, to combine) are parallel constructions with unparallel meaning. It is such a structural arrangement of an utterance in which the basic component is both a part of a phraseological unit and a free word-combination. So, zeugma is a simultaneous realization within the same short context of two meanings of a polysemantic unit, e.g. If the country doesn’t go to the dogs or the Radicals, we shall have you Prime Minister some day /O.Wilde/. The verb "to go” here realizes two meanings: to go to the dogs (to perish) and to go to the Radicals (to become politically radical).     Zeugma combines syntactical and lexical characteristics. Syntactically, it is based on similar structures, semantically it comprises different meanings, which leads to logical and semantic incompatibility. Zeugma is mainly a means of creating a humorous effect.