13. Peculiar use of set expressions

The use of SE is connected with clishes, proverbs & sayings, quotations & allusions. CLIchE – expr-n that had become tried & lost originality. There’re different treatments & understanding of the term, bur every agree that it’s rather stable & predictable( the wheat & carrot policy). Cl-s are often used in publ speeches. On the 1 hand, they give lively effect, on the other hand,they become > underst.by ordinary people. As sp characteristics os literary char-r CL is stubborn, poor-educated, everyth will depend on the topic of the ? CL is used of a speech of a char-r descry politics, economics give rather positive convers.on habitual topics with lots of Cliches presupposes a negative char-r. PROVEBS & SAYINGS usually collected in dictionaries. Their > char-c f-re lies in the content form in the utter-ce. Their wording becomes a pattern wh/needs no new w-ds. A PR presup a simult. Supplication of 2 m-ngs: - a primary, an extended(from the cont). PR ‘re deductive & descry. Norms, morals of the society. Being well-known Pr have rather low styl value. It’s their modifications that sound lively. (I leave John for a present safe not sound( safe & sound). The destr-n c/be observed in liter works of newspaper & magazine articles. The effect of the destr-n is mockery, irony & sarcasm. AN EPIGRAM - . It’s a stylistic device akin (сродни) to a proverb, difference - epigrams are coined by individuals whose names we know, while proverbs are the coinage of the people. E are witty statements. They always have literary bookish air & posess a > degree of indep-ce. E are > often char-d by rythm, alliteration & rhyme.A quotation is a repetition of a phrase or statement from a book, speech & the like used by way of authority, illustration, proof or as a basis for further speculation on the matter. By repeating a passage in a new environment, we attach to the utterance an importance it might not have had in the context. What is quoted must be worth quoting, since a quotation will inevitably acquire some degree of generalization. There’re spec dictionaries of Quot-ns. In literary works Q serve as a speech or interior char-cs of the char-r, the sit-n or event. If it’s repeated frequentlyit’s recognozed as Epigram. But many Q repeated in new environments areperceaved as an Epigram. A Q is always presented in inverted commas. It must be an extract rep-n of the w-ds of the creator. As soon as the Q looses its specific reference it becomes a saying as the form permits. An allusion, is an indirect reference, by word or phrase, to a historical, literary, mythological, biblical fact or to a fact of everyday life made in the course of speaking or writing. The use of allusion presupposes knowledge of the fact, thing or person alluded to on the part of the reader or listener. As a rule no indication of the source is given. This is one of the notable differences between quotation & allusion. Another difference is of a structural nature: a quotation must repeat the exact wording of the original even though the meaning may be modified by the new context; an allusion is only a mention of a word or phrase which may be regarded as the key-word of the utterance. An allusion has certain important semantic peculiarities, in that the meaning of the word should be regarded as a form for the new meaning. Set expressions are really very seldom produced in literary works in their original form. They’re always modified modified t.wh the terms are rather conventional they only hint at the source of modification.

Set expressions

Set expressions take the intermediate position between tropes (lexical stylistic devices) and figures of speech (syntactic stylistic devices).

A cliché is generally defined as an expression that has become hackneyed and trite (банальный, избитый; неоригинальный). Examples of real clichés are: rosy dreams of youth, the patter of little feet (топот маленьких ножек), deceptively simple, etc.

Proverbs and sayings are facts of the language. They are collected in dictionaries. The typical features of proverbs and sayings are rhythm, sometimes rhyme and/or alliteration.

Proverbs are brief statements showing the life experience of the community and serving as conventional practical symbols for abstract ideas. They are usually didactic and image bearing.

The most noticeable thing about proverbs and sayings functioning in the text is their modification. The modification, however, will never break away from the invariant (original form of the proverb or saying) so as to cease its reference to the known and fixed wording. For example, the proverb “out from the frying-pan into the fire” (из огня да в полымя) serves as background knowledge in understanding the phrase “We were dashed uncomfortable in the frying pan, but we should have been a damned sight worse off in the fire” used by S. Maugham.

Epigrams come close to proverbs, the only difference being in coined by individuals whose names are known. Epigrams are terse, witty, pointed statements, showing the ingenious turn of mind of the originator. They always have a literary-bookish air, have a generalizing function and are self-sufficient. The most characteristic feature is that the sentence (epigram) gets accepted as a word-combination and often becomes part of the language as a whole. There are some examples of widely-known epigrams: “Brevity is the soul of the wit” (Chekhov); “A thing of beauty is a joy forever” (Keats); “Mighty is he who conquered himself” (Maugham).

Quotations are repetitions of phrases or statements from books, speeches and the like used by way of authority, instruction, and proof or as a basis for further speculations on the matter in hand. They are usually marked off in the text by inverted commas, dashes, italics or other graphical means. A quotation is always set against the other sentences in the text by its greater volume of sense and significance. They allow no modifications. They are mostly used in scientific prose.

An allusion is an indirect reference to a historical, literary, mythological, biblical fact or a fact of everyday life made in the course of speaking or writing. The use of allusion presupposes knowledge of the fact, thing or person referred to. As a rule no indication of the source is given. Allusions are based on the accumulated experience and the knowledge of the writer who presupposes a similar experience and knowledge in the reader. For example: No little Grandgrind had ever associated a cow in a field with that famous cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt, or with that yet more famous cow that swallowed Tom Thumb; it had never heard of those celebrities. (Dickens) The allusion is made to the nursery rhyme “The House that Jack Built” and the old tale “The History of Tom Thumb” that every English child knows by heart.