5.1.2. Tropes based on the Intensification of a Certain Feature of a Thing or Phenomenon

SIMILE is a stylistic device based on a deliberate comparison of two objects, belonging to two different classes. This trope is easy to recognize because of theform words, used to connect the compared objects: ‘like’, ‘as though’, ’as if’, ‘as…as’, ‘such as’, ‘seem’, etc. [4, p. 167; 5, p. 51]

E.g. She walked over to the girl in the chair and nudged her gently. The girl sat up like a startled rabbit. /J. Collins Sinners/ [12]

PERIPHRASISis a SD based on the usage of a round-about way of expression instead of a simpler one. It is used when the name of a person or thing is substituted by a descriptive phrase [5, p. 56]. There are two types of periphrasis [4, p. 169]:

• Figurative(metaphoric or metonymic)

• Logical(the whole phrases synonymous with the word meant)

E.g. the cap and gown /student/; the better sex /woman/; a gentleman of the long robe /a lawyer/ [4]

Euphemismis a variety of periphrasis. It is a word or phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by a conventionally more acceptable one. For instance, instead of the word ‘to die’ people prefer to say:to pass away, to expire, to be no more, to depart, to join the majority, to be gone, etc. Euphemisms aim at producing a deliberately mild effect.

Euphemisms may be divided into several groups according to their sphere of application: 1) religious, 2) moral, 3) medical, 4) parliamentary.

The life of euphemisms is short, because they very soon become closely associated with the object they represent, and give way to new words [4, p.173].

HYPERBOLEis a deliberate exaggeration of a feature essential to the object or phenomenon. It is characteristic of every day speech, used as a signal of roused emotions [4, p. 176].

E.g. “And what am I?” “The Kind of person who […] always cries buckets at even slightly sad movies.” /Dean Koontz The Vision/ [39]

There are words, which are used in Hyperbole oftener than others: ‘all’, ‘every’, ‘everybody’, a million’, ‘a thousand’, ‘ever’, ‘never’, etc.

E.g. I told him this hundreds of times!

Understatementis a trope aimed at deliberate belittling

E.g. he had reddish hair

5.1.3. Tropes Based on Peculiar Use of Set Expressions

A clichéis an expression that has become hackneyed and trite [4, p. 177].

E.g. rosy dreams of youth [4]

PROVERBS and SAYINGS are facts of language. They are brief statements showing in condensed form the accumulated life experience of the community and serving as conventional practical symbol for abstract ideas They are collected in special dictionaries. [4, p. 181]

E.g. Out of sight, out of mind.

An EPIGRAM is a stylistic device similar to a proverb; but they are made by individuals whose names we know, while proverbs are invented by people in general [4, p. 184].

E.g. A thing of beauty is a joy forever. (Keats) [4]

A QUOTATIONis an exact repetition of a phrase or statement from a book, speech, and the like used by way of illustration. By repeating a passage in a new environment we attach more importance to the utterance. Quotations are usually marked off in the text by inverted commas (‘…’), dashes (-) oritalics[4, P. 186].

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. It differs from quotation, because it does not need to repeat the exact wording of the original. An allusion is only a mention of a word or phrase that may be regarded as the key word whose meaning is broadened into a general concept [4, p. 187].

E.g. Where is the road now, and its merry incidents of life!.. Old honest, pimple-nosed coachmen? […] Is old Weller alive or dead? (Thackeray) /here the allusion is made to the coachman, Old Mr. Weller, the father of Dickens’s famous character, Sam Weller/ [4]

DECOMPOSITION OF SET PHRASESdeals with linguistic fusions (i.e. set phrases whose meaning is understood only from the combination as a whole. E.g. to pull a person’s leg = to make a joke at him). The stylistic device of decomposition of fused set phrases consists in reviving the independent meanings, which make up the component parts of the fusion [4, p. 189].

E.g. I don’t mean to say that I know of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. (Dickens) /here we see decomposition of the phrase ‘as dead as a door-nail’/ [4]