28.Ssd (peculiar use of colloquial constructions)

Ellipsis is a deliberate abbreviation of a syntactical unit, usu. a sentence.

The missing parts are either present in the syntactic environment of the sentence or are implied by the situation (context).

In colloquial speech such constructions are frequent and arise from the speed of delivery and economy of effort.Sometimes the omission of necessary words becomes an indicator of poor grammar.In works of fiction elliptical sentences are made use of to reproduce the direct speech of characters and create the atmosphere of naturalness; to show their social status; to impart brevity, immediacy and a quick tempo to the author's narrative; to render the emotional tension.They call attention to the phenomenon described and create tense atmosphere.Besides oral speech and fiction, ellipsis is common to some special types of texts.It is very frequent in newspaper headlines, in papers or handbooks on technology and natural sciences.

Aposiopesis (break-in-the-narrative) denotes intentional abstention from continuing the utterance to the end. Without finishing the utterance the speaker (or writer) either begins a new one or stops altogether unwilling or unable (being overwhelmed with emotions) to continue. Aposiopesis presupposes stopping for rhetorical effect with the continuation highly predictable: the missing part can be reconstructed from the context. Elliptical points and a dash may mark aposiopesis in print.What is implied is always stronger than what is said. Thus, the silence produced is called speaking. Aposiopesis creates an emotional tension and invites the reader to give vent to his own imagination, to guess what stands behind the break and unwillingness to proceed (irony, irritation, uncertainty, indecision, anger, a threat, a warning, etc.).Sometimes a break-in-the-narrative is caused by euphemistic considerations – not to name a thing being offensive to the ear.

A question-in-the-narrative is asked and answered (if the answer is not self-evident) by one and the same person, usually the author. It is mainly done for the sake of emotional impact. This variety of question may also remain unanswered to stimulate the addressee’s thinking process over the problem in question, thus performing a dialogue-or contact-establishing function. In the case it often contains generalizing one, we and you. The device is also a means of verbal trickery, by which orators take over the initiative and make people believe that the thoughts imposed are their own.

32. Classification of lexical stylistic devices.

The problem of classification of tropes has existed for centuries going back to antique schools of rhetoric.

But the majority of scholars have not been interested in presenting tropes as a generalized system.

Most authors propose purely subjective classifications.

Some of them describe tropes and other stylistic devices in an alphabetical order.

Some split them into 2 groups: metaphor and metonymy.

I.R. Galperin's classification of lexical stylistic devices (adopted in our course) is based on the 3 following criteria:

Group 1. Interaction of different types of lexical meaning:

Dictionary (logical, literal) and contextual (figurative) meanings:

Metaphor, Metonymy, Irony.

Primary and derivative logical meanings (of a polysemantic word):

Zeugma, Pun.

Logical and emotive meanings:

Oxymoron, Epithet.

Logical and nominative meanings:

Antonomasia.

Group 2. Intensification of a feature:

Hyperbole (intensification of quantity, size, emotions, etc.),

Simile (intensification of affinity),

Periphrasis (intensification of an inherent property).

Group 3. Peculiar use of set expressions (interplay of their primary and contextual meanings, mainly when decomposed):

Clichés, Proverbs, Epigrams, Quotations, Allusions, Decomposition of set phrases.

Lexical stylistic devices are also classified according to the degree of originality into trite and genuine.

Genuine devices are original, full of imagery.

Trite devices are ready-made, fixed in dictionaries clichés. Imagery seems faded there.

Such cases are mainly dealt with in lexicology.

E.g. a root of the quarrel (trite metaphor).