Oxymoron

(From the Greek ‘oxymoron’ - остроумно-глупое).

Oxymoron is a combination of two words (mostly an adjective and a noun, or an adverb with an adjective) in which the meaning of the two clash, being opposite in sense.

e.g. low skyscraper, sweet sorrow, nice rascal, pleasantly ugly face, horribly beautiful, a deafening silence, etc.

If the primary meaning of the qualifying word changes or weakens, the stylistic effect of oxymoron is lost. This is the case with such combinations as awfully nice, terribly glad, etc. which were once oxymorons; but the words ‘awfully’ and ‘terribly’ have lost their primary logical meaning and are now used with emotive meaning only, as intensifiers.

Thus, oxymoron is a juxtaposition of 2 non-combinative words.

Lexical Stylistic Devices: Interaction of Logical and Nominal Meaning antonomasia

The interplay between the logical and nominal meaning is called antonomasia. Both the meanings must be realized in the word simultaneously. If only one meaning is materialized in the context, we have trite metonymy.

e.g. hooligan

boycott

sandwich

diesel

The nominal meaning of a word is not intended to give any information about the person. It only serves the purpose of identification. (Proper names, i.e. words with nominal meaning, can etymologically, in most cases, be traced to some quality, property or trait of a person, or his occupation – e.g. – Smith. But this etymological meaning may be forgotten and the word understood as a proper name and nothing else). It is not so with antonomasia.

Antonomasia is intended to point out the most typical, characteristic feature of a person or event and at the same time to pin this feature to a person or event concerned as a proper name.

We distinguish 3 types of antonomasia:

1. the use of a proper name for a common noun (e.g. Token or telling names) – always trite

e.g. Vralman, Othello, Molchalin, Korobochka, Monte Cristo, etc.

2) The use of a common noun for a proper name –always genuine SD

e.g. Mr Mischief, Miss Blue Eyes , Miss Mumble

Mr Logic

Miss Fancy

My dear Miss Simplicity

Mr Smb Smth

Mr What’s –his –name

Dr Rest Dr Diet Dr Fresh Air

e.g. Miss Blue byes was a beauty, one of the most beautiful girls at the party.

) a round-about phrase stands for a proper name

e.g. the pride of the school (Miss Brown) went forward – (periphrasis)

In fact, antonomasia is a revival of the initial stage in naming individuals. It is a much favoured device in belles-lettres style.

e.g. The only child was the hope of the family.

Lexical SDs: Intensification of a Certain Feature of a Thing or Phenomenon

Hyperbole. Understatement. Periphrasis. Euphemism. Simile

In this group of stylistic devices, we find that one of the qualities of the object in question is made to sound essential. The quality picked out may or may not be seemingly unimportant, transitory [ t’r nzit ri] but for a special reason it is elevated to the greatest and made into a telling feature.

HYPERBOLE

(From the Greek ‘hyperbole’ - преувеличение)

Hyperbole can be defined as a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of a feature essential to the object or phenomenon. Like many SDs, hyperbole may lose its quality as a SD through frequent repetition and become a unit of the language-as-a-system, reproduced in speech in its unaltered form.

e.g. (language hyperbole) - a thousand pardons

scared to death

immensely obliged

I’d give worlds to see him

Hyperbole differs from mere exaggeration as it is intended to be understood as an exaggeration.