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Файл:Стилистика английского языка. Практикум для студентов 4 курса, направление подготовки «Педагогическое образование»
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digested. (F. Bacon)
The metaphoric description has the aim to give a new prospective to the object, and it can be
based on outer similarity, on inner, functional similarity or on purely emotive grounds.
Simile
– the juxtaposition of 2 objects, which belong to different classes of things, with some
common property by which one of them is more vividly characterized.
Simile shows likeness in dissimilar objects. The 2 components of the simile may be joined by
conjunctions like, as if, as though, as... as. The comparison may be expressed lexically by
verbs to seem, to remind of to resemble. Sometimes the degree of comparison can be used.
E.g. The ruby shall be redder than a red rose,
and the sapphire shall be as blue as the great
see. (O. Wilde)
Negative constructions can be also used, and a negative simile can be even more effective than
a positive one:
E.g. Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude. (W. Shakespeare)
Simile is based on the comparison of the objects belonging to different classes and an element
of imagination is involved, because only one property can be common to both of them and
even this property may be not vivid. As a result, a new understanding of both the objects is
achieved. Some linguists call simile a type of metaphor or metaphor a hidden simile.
В – Simile A is В – Metaphor
Personification
A is like
is also a form of metaphor. It is a trope which ascribes human or personal
qualities to inanimate things so that they seem to possess life.
E.g. A small sailing craft is not only beautiful, it is seductive and full of strange promise and
the hint of trouble. (E.B. White "The Sea and the Wind That Blows") The effect of
personification can be also achieved with the help of direct address –
apostrophe
(see above
– "winter wind"), personal pronouns (she/he for it), capital letter.
The functions of personification:
1) It makes the description more dynamic.
2) It creates the general mood of the text.
3) It helps to make abstractions tangible.
4) It creates the epic tone of the narration.
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Simile, metaphor, personification, and metaphorical epithets are called
images
(in the narrow
meaning of this word).
Imagery
Structure
Any image can be analyzed from the point of view of its structure.
This structure was worked out by Ivor Richards.
1. The tenor – the thing we are talking about, what is compared.
2. The vehicle – the thing to which the tenor is compared.
3. The ground – the common feature b/n the tenor and the vehicle.
The tenor of the metaphor may be present or implied, with simile it is practically always present
(see the example above – "ruby", "sapphire", "books"). The effect of the image depends on
the kind of vehicles the author chooses. In different times different poets and writers had
preferences for different vehicles.
E.g. Shakespeare – nature, Byron – volcano, Shelly – water, Bronte – fire.
There are
extended
or
sustained
images. They are expressed not in one word; they are
developed, prolonged in various ways. The writer may add new details to the vehicle
discovering analogies with the tenor in more than 1 point.
E.g. Clambering
onward, we have slowly made our way out of a maze of isolated peaks into
the level plains of science.
When images are absorbed into the language, we no longer respond to them as images. We
refer to them as
"dead"
E.g. The use of the language is an instrument for analysis. Dead
metaphors form a large group of the familiar phrases we depend on in speaking and writing, we
can find them in the dictionaries and we do not see any transference of meaning in them.
Before an image becomes completely dead it may be
trite or hackneyed.
These are images
we have heard or seen in print so often that they have lost their flavor and originality, but we
still realize the transference of meaning and they may have expressive connotation
. E.g. redhot
temper, swollen ego, killing glance, shadow of a doubt, a crying shame, green with envy, in
his heart of hearts, the depths of her soul.
Trite images are frequently used in publicist style
. In literature they considerably weaken
writing. Clichés bore the readers and give the impression that the writer is lazy or
unimaginative; in speeches clichés may suggest thoughtlessness or insincerity. Clever writers or
speakers often use clichés in an original way – ‘revive’ them.
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Genuine
image (fresh, striking, unusual) >
trite > cliché > dead
The semantics of the genuine image
1) Images show likeness in dissimilar objects. There must be something striking and
unexpected in every genuine image, it must produce a surprise effect due to the discovery
of some common elements in 2 seemingly disparate phenomena. This effect is called
disparity action
Multiple meaning.
2)
.
We are simultaneously conscious of double image, as if 2 transparent
planes are matched and one is seen through the other. There should be a certain semantic
distance b/n the tenor and the vehicle, because if they are too close, the prospective of
double image may be ruined.
Ambiguity.
3)
An image must be capable of rendering more than one interpretation.
The functions of images
1.To extend the language, to say what cannot be expressed in terms of literal meaning, to
express the inexpressible. Very often abstract notions are compared to or identified with
material objects.
2.To make the description more vivid and definite.
3.To reveal certain feelings and emotional attitude to what's being described.
B.Tropesbasedonconstantconnections
Metonymy
is a trope in which the name of some object or idea is substituted for another to
which it has some permanent objectively existing relations.
Possible relations:
A concrete thing for an abstract notion
The container for the thing contained
Relations of proximity
The material for the thing made of it
The instrument for the action or the doer of the action
Etc.
There is lexical metonymy (china, Champaign, hands) and stylistic (genuine) metonymy.
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E.g. The pen is mightier than the sword.
Metonymy doesn’t presuppose comparison (like metaphor). It is always logical, intellectual,
while metaphor is mostly emotional.
"Metaphor
creates the relation between its objects, while
metonymy
presupposes that
relation." (Hugh Bredin, "Metonymy." Poetics Today, 1984)
Synecdoche
is a trope in which the part represents the whole or the other way round.
Due to metonymy and synecdoche the utterance becomes energetic, vivid; a high degree of
generalization is achieved.
E.g. Is this the face
that launched a thousand ships? (Marlowe)
The faint fresh flame of the young year flushes
From leaf
And fruit
to flower and from flower to fruit
and leaf are as gold and fire. (Swinburn)
C.Mixedgroup
Epithet
is a word or a phrase used to describe a person or a thing rendering the author’s
individual perception of them, his/her subjective, emotionally colored attitude. An adjective
may be used in its direct meaning and be an epithet (e.g. magnificent, atrocious, etc.). They
shouldn’t be mixed with logical attributes: wooden table – wooden face; iron knife – iron will.
Epithets are markedly suggestive, imaginative, and evaluative
.
Through long and repeated use epithets may become fixed. Many fixed epithets are closely
connected with folklore and can be traced back to folk ballads (e.g. "true love", "merry
Christmas", etc.). A number of them have originated in euphemistic writing of the late sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries (e.g. "a valiant youth", "a trembling maiden", "dead silence", etc.).
The structure and semantics of epithets are extremely variable which is explained by their long
and wide use.
Classification of epithets
can be based on semantic or structural principles.
Semantically:
Affective
emotive proper
(or
). Serve to convey the emotional evaluation of the object
by the speaker. Most of the qualifying words found in the dictionary can be and are used as
affective epithets (e.g. "gorgeous", "nasty", etc.).
Metaphorical
– presuppose comparison, E.g. smiling sun, wooden face. The lane
was bordered on the left by wild, low-growing brambles, on the right by a high, neatly
manicured
man, Please sit in the apple-juice
hedge.
Metonymical
– presuppose contiguity (E.g. the umbrella man – the ex-umbrella
seat.)
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Transferred
object associated with it. E.g. He paid a trembling
– the property indicated in an object is transferred to it from some other
visit. Ten-thirty is a dark hour in a town
where respectable doors are locked at nine. (Capote) He sat with Daisy in his arms for a
long silent time. (Fitzgerald) I will make a palace fit for you and me Of green days in forest
and blue days at sea. ( Stevenson)
Structurally:
Word
Sentence
Two-step
epithets
epithets (Fool! Pigs! You, ostrich!)
epithets are so called because the process of qualifying seemingly passes
two stages: the qualification of the object and the qualification of the qualification itself, as in
"an unnaturally mild day", or "a pompously majestic female". Have a fixed structure of Adv
+ Adj model. E.g. The children were very brown and filthily
Compound
epithets are built like compound adjectives
dirty. (V. Woolf)
curly-headed, mischief-making monkey
wild-looking young fellows
Reversed
epithets (a monster of a dog, a toy of a car, pepper of a man, a peach of a
girl).
Reversed epithets:
A devil of a sea rolls in that bay (G. Byron);
a little Flying Dutchman of a cab (J. Galsworthy.);
her brute of a brother (J. Galsworthy.)
a dog of a fellow (Ch. Diсkens);
When meeting an inverted epithet do not mix it up with an ordinary of-phrase. Here the article
with the second noun will help you in doubtful cases: "the toy of the girl" (the toy belonging to
the girl); "a toy of a girl" (a small, toylike girl), or "the kitten of the woman" (the cat belonging
to the woman); "a kitten of a woman" (a kittenlike woman). These are
not
reversed epithets
either: an hour of bliss, muscles of iron, the sea of faces, the crown of her hair
Phrase
He was look-before-you-leap
epithets
sort of a man. A move-if-you-dare expression.
He acknowledged an early-afternoon customer with a be-with-you-in-a-minute
nod. (Uhnak)
String
E.g. "You're a scolding, unjust, abusive, aggravating, bad old
epithet.
creature." (Dickens.)
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From the last example it is evident that if a logical attribute (which in our case is the word
"old") is included into the chain of epithets it begins to shine with their reflected light, i.e. the
subjectivity of epithets irradiates onto the logical attribute and adapts it for expressive
purposes, along with epithets proper.
Antonomasia
is a lexical SD in which a proper name is used instead of a common noun or
vice versa, i.e. a SD, in which the nominal meaning of a proper name is suppressed by its
logical meaning or the logical meaning acquires the new – nominal — component.
E.g. He took little satisfaction in telling each Mary,
shortly after she arrived, something....
(Th. Dreiser) If you forget to invite somebody's Aunt Millie, I want to be able to say I had
nothing to do with it. There were numerous Aunt Millies because of, and in spite of Arthur's
and Edith's triple checking of the list. (O'Hara)
Another type of antonomasia: a common noun serves as an individualizing name, as in When I
eventually met Mr. Right
I had no idea that his first name was Always (Rita Rudner), Mr.
Facing-Both-Ways does not get very far in this world. Common nouns used in the second
type of antonomasia are in most cases abstract, though there are instances of concrete ones
being used too.
Still another type of antonomasia is presented by the so-called
"speaking names"
– names
whose origin from common nouns is still clearly perceived. Such names from Sheridan's
School for Scandal as Lady Teazle or Mr. Surface immediately raise associations with certain
human qualities. The double role of the speaking names, both to name and to qualify, is
sometimes preserved in translation. E.g. the list of names from another of Sheridan's plays,
The Rivals: Miss Languish – Мисс Томней; Mr. Backbite – М-р Клевентаун; Mr.
Credulous – М-р Доверч; Mr. Snake – М-р Гад, etc. Or from F. Cooper: Lord Chatterino –
Лорд Балаболо; John Jaw – Джон Брех; Island Leap-High – Остров Высокопрыгия.
Antonomasia is created mainly by nouns, more seldom by attributive combinations (as in "Dr.
Fresh Air") or phrases (as in "Mr. What's-his-name").
Allegory
used to understand and express aspects of concepts relating to human existence.
is an extended image, especially a story in which fictional characters and actions are
A parable
is
a brief allegory that is used to teach a moral lesson. Other allegorical genres are proverbs and
fables.
Jesus Christ used parables as a teaching method. A biblical parable is "an earthly
story with a heavenly meaning". (E.g
Wise and Foolish Builders
)
. Lost sheep, Prodigal son, The Parable of The
E.g. “The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and
sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the
greatest among herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its
branches. ”
TropesExpressingRelations
A.Tropesexpressingrelationsofidentity
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Synonyms
are used in literary texts for 2 different reasons:
1) to avoid monotonous repetition of the same word in a sentence or a sequence of sentences
E.g. The little boy
attention to the kid
was crying. It was the child’s usual time for going to bed, but no one paid
replacers
–
;
2) to make the description as complete as possible, to provide additional shades of meaning:
E.g. Dear Paul, it’s very weak
to foot –
Periphrasis
specifiers
.
– circumlocution, description instead of name, roundabout way of speaking. It is
and silly of me, I know, to be so trembly and shaky from head
naming the characteristic features of the object instead of naming the object itself. It
demonstrates redundancy of lingual elements. Its stylistic effect varies from elevation to humor.
E.g. Soon after, Sir Robert Merriweather came forth to search for this terrible thief of life.
Some periphrases are traditional, trite e. g. The fair sex. My better half.
Periphrases are divided into:
1. Logical – based on inherent properties of a thing.
e. g. Instrument of destruction, the object of administration.
2. Figurative – based on imagery: metaphor, metonymy
e. g. To tie a knot – to get married; in disgrace of fortune – bad luck.
Euphemism
is a kind of periphrasis, a roundabout description of a thing considered too blunt
or too fearful to be named. The desire to avoid naming a thing may be due to awe, fear,
superstition, prejudice, social conventions.
In modern literature it often creates humorous effect. E.g. In the left corner, built out into the
room, is the toilet with the sign «This is it» on the door. (E. O’Neill)
In the political discourse euphemisms effectively fulfill a brain-washing function.
Classification of modern euphemisms:
Politically correct – avoidance of expressions or actions that can be perceived to
exclude or marginalize or insult people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.
E.g. third age, big-boned, differently sized, hair-disadvantaged, an indigenous person.
Taboos connected with the primal fear of death and disease. E.g. Moonchild instead
of Cancer (in Zodiac).
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Political euphemisms – disguising the current social, economic, political problems and
unpopular solutions. E.g. to kill – neutralize. The Japan air self-defense force flew its first
humanitarian mission into Iraq as part of coalition air forces, landing at Tallil Air Base.
B. Obama: I want to speak to you tonight about our effort
in Afghanistan (Dec, 2009).
Children from low-income families score 27 points below the average reading level, while
students from wealthy families score fifteen points above the average (June 2005). We are
willing to look out for one another and help people who are vulnerable and help people who
are down on their luck (March 2010).
Raising the social status of some professions. E.g. hairstylist, beautician, garbage
collector, sanitation engineer, environmental hygienist.
B.Tropesexpressingrelationsofcontrast
Irony
is a stylistic device in which the contextual evaluative meaning of a word is directly
opposite to its dictionary meaning. E.g. … [models] with smiles as natural as those cut in a
Halloween pumpkin. (Fowles)
Oxymoron
is a stylistic device the syntactic and semantic structures of which come to
clashes. In Shakespearian definitions of love, much quoted from his Romeo and Juliet,
perfectly correct syntactically, attributive combinations present a strong semantic discrepancy
between their members. E.g.: "O brawling love! О loving hate! О heavy lightness! Serious
vanity! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!" The most widely known structure
of oxymoron is attributive. But there are also others, in which verbs are employed. "to shout
mutely" "the street damaged by improvements" "silence was louder than thunder".
Antithesis
is a semantic opposition often emphasized by its realization in similar structures. It
is often observed on lower levels of language hierarchy, especially on the morphemic level
where two antonymous affixes create a powerful effect of contrast. E.g.: That’s one small step
for a man, one giant leap for mankind.
C.Tropesexpressingrelationsofdifference
Hyperbole
is a stylistic device in which emphasis is achieved through deliberate exaggeration.
The feelings and emotions of the speaker are so raffled that he resorts in his speech to
intensifying the quantitative or the qualitative aspect of the mentioned object. Hyperbole is one
of the most common expressive means of our everyday speech. When we describe our
admiration or anger and say "I would gladly see this film a hundred times", or "I have told it to
you a thousand times" – we use trite language hyperboles which, through long and repeated
use, have lost their originality and remained signals of the speaker's roused emotions.
Hyperbole may be the final effect of another SD – metaphor, simile, irony, as we have in the
cases "He has the tread of a rhinoceros" or "The man was like the Rock of Gibraltar".
Hyperbole can be expressed by all notional parts of speech. There are words though, which
are used in this SD more often than others. They are such pronouns as "all", ''every", "everybody"
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and the like; also numerical nouns ("a million", "a thousand"); and adverbs of time ("ever", "never").
Hyperbole is aimed at exaggerating quantity or quality. When characteristic features of the
object are not overrated, but intentionally underrated, we deal with
understatement
. English is
well known for its preference for understatement in everyday speech – "I am rather annoyed"
instead of "I'm infuriated", "The wind is rather strong" instead of "There's a storm" are typical
of British polite speech, but are less characteristic of American English. Understatement is
often identified with litotes.
Litotes
is also a two-component structure in which two negations are joined to give a positive
evaluation. Thus "not unkindly" actually means "kindly", though the positive effect is
weakened and some lack of the speaker's confidence in his statement is implied. The first
component of a litotes is always the negative particle "not", while the second, always negative
in semantics, varies in form from a negatively affixed word (as above) to a negative phrase.
E.g. "Her face was not unhandsome" "Her face was not unpretty".
The function of litotes has much in common with that of understatement – both weaken the
effect of the utterance. The uniqueness of litotes lies in its specific "double negative" structure
and in its weakening only the positive evaluation.
Climax (gradation) –
arrangement of the correlated ideas, in which each next word
combination (clause, sentence) is logically more important or emotionally stronger and more
explicit: "Better to borrow, better to beg, better to die!" "I am firm, thou art obstinate, he is
pig-headed." A string of synonyms or semantically related words belonging to the same
thematic group.
Logical, emotive or quantitative types of climax.
The most widely spread model of climax
is a three-step construction, in which intensification of logical importance, of emotion or
quantity (size, dimensions) is gradually rising step by step. In emotive climax though, we rather
often meet a two-step structure, in which the second part repeats the first one and is further
strengthened by an intensifier, as in the following instances: "He was so helpless, so very
helpless." "She felt better, immensely better." "I have been so unhappy here, so very very
unhappy."
Bathos –
a sudden toning down from lofty to low. Defeated expectancy effect.
He was unconsolable – for an afternoon. (Galsworthy)
Not louder shrieks to pitying heaven are cast,
When husbands or when lap-dogs breathe their last (Pope)
Inhuman piercing shrieks that could not have been produced by a manly set of vocal organs
– they were indecent, terrifying, humiliating screams, such as women omit when they see
ghosts or caterpillars.
Zeugma and pun
operate on the same linguistic mechanism: namely, one word is deliberately
used in two meanings. The effect of these SDs is humorous. In very many cases polysemantic
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verbs that have a practically unlimited lexical valency and can be combined with nouns of most
varying semantic groups, are deliberately used with two or more homogeneous members,
which are not connected semantically, as in such examples from Ch. Dickens: "He took his hat
and his leave", or "She went home, in a flood of tears and a sedan chair". These are cases
of classical
zeugma
, highly characteristic of English prose.
When the number of homogeneous members, semantically disconnected, but attached to the
same verb, increases, we deal with semantically false chains, which are thus a variation of
zeugma. As a rule, it is the last member of the chain that falls out of the thematic group,
defeating our expectancy and producing humorous effect. E.g.: "A Governess wanted. Must
possess knowledge of Romanian, Russian, Italian, Spanish, German, Music and Mining
Engineering." (S. Leacock).
Contextual conditions leading to the simultaneous realization of two meanings and to the
formation of
pun
may vary. It can be misinterpretation of one speaker's utterance by the other,
which results in his remark dealing with a different meaning of the misinterpreted word or its
homonym. E.g. A sign on the lawn at a drug re-hab center says, “Keep off the grass!” Two
duelists fired at each other and both missed, so when one of the seconds said, after the duel,
“Now, please, shake your hands!” the other answered, “There is no need for that. Their
hands must have been shaking since morning”.
Punning may be the result of the speaker's intended violation of the listener's
expectation. E.g. O. Wilde's play
The Importance of Being Ernest
.
Practice
Identify the stylistic devices in the following quotations and explain the use to which they
are put (emotional emphasis, imagery, humor, satire, contrast, special atmosphere, etc.):
1. Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get. – W. Groom.
2. Joy and Temperance and Repose Slam the door on the doctor's nose. – Anonymous.
3. The green lizard and the golden snake, Like unimprisoned flames, out of their trance awake.
– P. B. Shelley.
4. Dorothy's eyes, with their long brown lashes, looked very much like her mother's. – B.
Johnson.
5. Love's feeling is more soft and sensible Than are the tender horns of cockled snails. – W.
Shakespeare.
6. Now half [of the departing guests] to the setting sun are gone, And half to the rising day. –
A. Tennyson.
7. There had been rain in the night, and now all the trees were curtseying to a fresh wind... –
A. Huxley.
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