Violation of phraseological units

restoring the literal original meaning of the word, which lost some of its semantic independence and strength in a phraseological unit or cliché. (A.V.K.)

e.g.: Little John was born with a silver spoon in his mouth which was rather curly and large.(I.Galsworthy)

e.g.: After a while and a cake he crept nervously to the door of the parlour.(A.Tolkien)

See: <cluster SDs>

nonsense of non-sequence

joining two semantically disconnected clauses into one sentence (A.V.K.)

e.g.: Emperor Nero played the fiddle, so they burnt Rome.(Y.Esar)

See: <cluster SDs>

irony

a) is a <stylistic device> in which the contextual evaluative meaning of a word is directly opposite to its dictionary meaning

b) is the <foregrounding> not of the logical but of the evaluative meaning

c) is the contradiction between the said and implied

c) is subdivided into <verbal irony> and <sustained irony>

The context is arranged so that the qualifying word in irony reverses the direction of the evaluation, and the word positively charged is understood as a negative qualification and (much-much rarer) vice versa. The context varies from the minimal – a word combination to the context of a whole book.

e.g.: The lift held two people and rose slowly, groaning with diffidence.(I.Murdoch)

e.g.: Apart from splits based on politics, racial, religious and ethic backgrounds and specific personality differences, we’re just one cohesive team.(D.Uhnak)

See: <lexical SDs>

Source:

Verbal irony

a type of <irony> when it is possible to indicate the exact word whose contextual meaning diametrically opposes its dictionary meaning, in whose meaning we can trace the contradiction between the said and implied

e.g.: She turned with the sweet smile of an alligator. (J.Steinbeck)

e.g.: With all the expressiveness of a stone Welsh stared at him another twenty seconds apparently hoping to see him gag.(R.Chandler)

e.g.: She’s a charming middle-aged lady with a face like a bucket of mud and if she has washed her hair since Coolridge’s second term, I’ll eat my spare tire, rim and all. (R.Chandler)

e.g.: Last time it was a nice, simple, European-style war.(I.Shaw)

Ant.: <sustained irony>

See: <lexical SDs>

sustained irony

a) a type of <irony>, intuitively feeling the reversal of the evaluation, formed by the contradiction of the speaker’s (writer’s) considerations and the generally accepted moral and ethical codes;

b) a number of statements, the whole of the text, in whose meaning we can trace the contradiction between the said and implied.

e.g.: Many examples are supplied by D.Defoe, J.Swift of by such twentieth c. writers as S.Lewis, K.Vonnegut, E.Waugh and others.

e.g.: When the war broke out she took down the signed photograph of the Kaiser and, with some solemnity, hung it in the men-servants’ lavatory; it was her one combative action. (E.Waugh)

Ant.: <verbal irony>

See: <lexical SDs>

Source:

antonomasia

[c]type 1[/c]: a lexical SD in which a proper name is used instead of a common noun or vice versa, i.e. a lexical 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 \[=any female\], shortly after she arrived, something ... (Th. Dreiser)

e.g.: ”Your fur and his Caddy are a perfect match”. I respect history: “Don’t you know that Detroit was founded by Sir Antoine de la Mothe Caddilac, French fur trader”.(J.O’Hara)

[c]type 2[/c]: a lexical SD in which a common noun serves as an individualising name

e.g.: There are three doctors in an illness like yours. I don’t mean only my self, my partner and the radiologist who does your X-rays, the three I’m referring to are Dr. Rest, Dr. Diet and Dr. Fresh Air. (D.Cusack)

[c]type 3[/c]: “speaking names” whose origin from common nouns is still clearly perceived

e.g.: Miss Languish – Мисс Томней, Mr. Backbite – М-р Клевентаун, Mr. Credulous – М-р Доверч, Mr. Snake – М-р Гад (Sheridan)

e.g.: Lord Chatterino – Лорд Балаболо, John Jaw – Джон Брех, Island Leap-High - Остров Высокопрыгия (F.Cooper)

e.g.: Mr. What’s-his-name, Mr. Owl Eyes, Colonel Slidebottom, Lady Teazle, Mr. Surface, Miss Tomboy, Miss Sarcastic, Miss Sneerface, Lady Bracknell

e.g.: The next speaker was a tall gloomy man. Sir Something Somebody. (J.B.Priestley)

See: <lexical SDs>

epithet

a <stylistic device> based on the interplay of emotive and logical meaning in an attributive word, phrase or even sentence, used to characterise and object and pointing out to the reader, and frequently imposing on him, some of the properties or features of the object with the aim of giving an individual perception and evaluation of these features or properties

e.g.: ”wild wind”, “loud ocean”, “remorseless dash of billows”, “formidable waves”, “heart-burning smile”; “destructive charms”, “glorious sight”, “encouraging smile”

- is markedly subjective and evaluative;

Source:

- expresses characteristics of an object, both existing and imaginary;

- <foregrounding> the emotive meaning of the word to suppress its denotational meaning

- semantically there should be differentiated two main groups: <affective epithet>s and <figurative epithet>s or <transferred epithet>s;

- structurally there should be differentiated: single epithets, pair epithets, chains or strings, two-step structures, inverted constructions, phrase-attributes

- is the most widely used lexical SD;

Chains or strings of epithets present a group of homogeneous attributes varying in number from three up to sometimes twenty and even more.

e.g.: You’re a scolding, unjust, abusive, aggravating, bad old creature.(Ch.Dickens)

e.g.: He’s a proud, haughty, consequential, turned-nosed peacock. (Ch.Dickens)

Phrase-epithets always produce an original impression.

e.g.: ”the sunshine-in-the-breakfast-room smell” (J.Baldwin)

e.g.: ”a move-if-you-dare expression”(J.Greenwood)

e.g.: There was none of the Old-fashioned Five-Four-Three-Two-One-Zero business, so tough on the human nervous system. (A.Clarke)

Inverted epithets based on the contradiction between the logical and the syntactical: logically defining becomes syntactically defined and vice versa. The article with the second noun will help in doubtful cases.

e.g.: ”this devil of a woman” instead of “this devilish woman”, “the giant man” (a gigantic man); “the prude of a woman” (a prudish woman), “the toy of a girl” (a small, toylike girl), “the kitten of a woman” (a kittenlike woman)

e.g.: She was a faded white rabbit of a woman. (A.Cronin)

See: <lexical SDs>

Source:

affective epithet

serves to convey the emotional evaluation of the object by the speaker

e.g.: “gorgeous”, “nasty”, “magnificent”, “atrocious”

See: <figurative epithet> or <transferred epithet>, <epithet>, <lexical SDs>

figurative epithet

transferred epithet

an <epithet> that is formed of <metaphor>, <metonymy>, <simile>, expressed by adjectives

e.g.: ”the smiling sun”, “the frowning cloud”, “the sleepless pillow”, “the tobacco-stained smile”, a “ghost-like face”, “a dreamlike experience”, “triumphant look”

See: <affective epithet>, <epithet>, <lexical SDs>

hyperbole

a <stylistic device> in which emphasis is achieved through deliberate exaggeration

It does not signify the actual state of affairs in reality, but presents the latter through the emotionally coloured perception and rendering of the speaker.

e.g.: My vegetable love should grow faster than empires. (A.Marvell)

e.g.: The man was like the Rock of Gibraltar.

e.g.: Calpurnia was all angles and bones.

e.g.: I was scared to death when he entered the room.(J.D.Salinger)

Ant.: <understatement>

See: <lexical SDs>

understatement

a <stylistic device> in which emphasis is achieved through intentional underestimation It does not signify the actual state of affairs in reality, but presents the latter through the emotionally coloured perception and rendering of the speaker.

e.g.: ”The wind is rather strong” instead of “There’s a gale blowing outside”

e.g.: She wore a pink hat, the size of a button. (J.Reed)

e.g.: About a very small man in the Navy: this new sailor stood five feet nothing in sea boots. (Th. Pynchon)

Ant.: <hyperbole>

See: <lexical SDs>

oxymoron

1) a combination of two words (mostly an adjective and a noun or an adverb with an adjective) in which the meanings of the two clash, being opposite in sense

2) a combination of two semantically contradictory notions, that help to emphasise contradictory qualities simultaneously existing in the described phenomenon as a dialectical unity

e.g.: ”low skyscraper”, “sweet sorrow”, “nice rascal”, “pleasantly ugly face”, “horribly beautiful”, “a deafening silence from Whitehall” (The Morning Star)

e.g.: ”The Beauty of the Dead”, “to shout mutely”, “to cry silently”, “the street damaged by improvements” (O.Henry), “silence was louder than thunder” (J.Updike)

e.g.: O brawling love! O loving hate! O heavy lightness! Serious vanity! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick heath! (W.Shakespeare)

e.g.: You have two beautiful bad examples for parents. (Sc.Fitzgerald)

See: <lexical SDs>

syntactical level

include <syntactical stylistic devices>, <types of repetition>, <sentence structure>, <types of connection>, arrangement of sentence members, <completeness of sentence structure>,

See: <phono-graphical level>, <morphological level>, <lexical level>, <Stylistics>

syntactical stylistic devices

syntactical SDs

include: sentence length, <one-word sentences>, <punctuation>, <rhetorical question>, <parallel construction>, <chiasmus>, <inversion>, <suspense>, <detachment>, <ellipsis>, one-member sentences, <apokoinu constructions>, <break-in-the-narrative>, <polysyndeton>, <asyndeton>, <attachment>

See: <types of repetition>; <lexical SDs>, <cluster SDs>, <lexico-syntactical SDs>, <stylistic device>

one-word sentences

possess a very strong emphatic impact, for their only word obtains both the word- and the sentence-stress. The word constituting a sentence also obtains its own sentence-intonation which, too, helps to foreground the content.

e.g.: I like people. Not just empty streets and dead buildings. People. People. (P.Abrahams)

See: <punctuation>, <syntactical SDs>

sentence structure

Not only the clarity and understandability of the sentence but also its expressiveness depend on the position of clauses, constituting it.

@ loose structure

- opens with the main clause, which is followed by dependent units

- less emphatic and is highly characteristic of informal writing and conversation

@ periodic sentences

- open with subordinate clauses, absolute and participial constructions, the main clause being withheld until the end

- are known for their emphasis and are used mainly in creative prose

e.g.: Such being at bottom the fact, I think it is well to leave it at that. (S.Maugham)

@ balanced sentences

- subordinate-main-subordinate similar structuring of the beginning of the sentence and its end;

- known for stressing the logic and reasoning of the content and thus preferred in publicist writing;

@

See: <punctuation>, <syntactical SDs>

Source:

order of words

and <punctuation> are used to convey the corresponding pausation and intonation in the written form of speech

See: <punctuation>, <syntactical SDs>

punctuation

Points of exclamation, points of interrogation, dots, dashes; commas, semicolons and full stops serve as an additional source of information and help to specify the meaning of the written sentence which in oral speech would be conveyed by the intonation.

e.g.: ”What’s your name?” “John Lewis.” “Mine’s Liza. Watkin.” (K.Kesey)

e.g.: ”You know so much. Where is she?” “Dead. Or in a crazy house.” Or married. I think she’s married and quieted down.” (T.Capote)

e.g.: The neon lights in the heart of the city flashed on and off. On and off. On. Off. On. Off. Continuiously. (P.Abrahams)

See: <order of words>, <one-word sentences>, <syntactical SDs>

rhetorical question

1) peculiar interrogative construction which semantically remains a statement;

- does not demand any information but

- serves to express the emotions of the speaker and also

- serves to call the attention of listeners;

- makes an indispensable part of oratoric speech for they very successfully emphasise the orator’s ideas.

2) a special syntactical stylistic device the essence of which consists in reshaping the grammatical meaning of the interrogative sentence

e.g.: Are these the remedies for a starving and desperate populace?

See: <order of words>, <punctuation>, <syntactical SDs>

types of repetition

include: <anaphora>, <epiphora>, <framing>, <catch repetition> or <anadiplosis>, <chain repetition>, <ordinary repetition>, <successive repetition>; <synonymical repetition>

Repetition:

- is a powerful meand of emphasis

- adds rhythm and balance to the utterance

See: <syntactical SDs>, <stylistic device>

anaphora

a . . . , a . . . , a . . . ,

the beginning of two or more sentences (clauses) is repeated

The main stylistic function is not so much to emphasise the repeated unit as to create the background for the non-repeated unit, which, through its novelty, becomes foregrounded.

e.g.: I might as well face facts: good-bye, Susan, good-bye a big car, good-bye a big house, good-bye power, good-bye the silly handsome dreams. (J.Braine)

e.g.: And everywhere were people. People going into gates and coming out of gates. People staggering and falling. People fighting and cursing.(P.Abrahams)

Ant.: <epiphora>

See: <types of repetition>

epiphora

. . . a, . . . a, . . . a,

the end of successive sentences (clauses) is repeated

The main stylistic function is to add stress to the final words of the sentence.

e.g.: I wake up and I’m alone and I walk round Warley and I’m alone; and I talk with people and I’m alone and I look at his face when I’m home and it’s dead. (J.Braine)

Ant.: <anaphora>

See: <types of repetition>

framing

a . . . a

the beginning of the sentence is repeated in the end, thus forming the “frame” for the non-repeated part of the sentence (utterance)

The stylistic function is to elucidate the notion mentioned in the beginning of the sentence, to concretise and to specify its semantics.

e.g.: Obviously – this is a streptococcal infection. Obviously. (W.Deeping)

e.g.: Then there was something between them. There was. There was. (T.Dreiser)

See: <catch repetition> or <anadiplosis>, <types of repetition>, <syntactical SDs>

catch repetition

anadiplosis

reduplication

. . . a, a . . .

the end of one clause (sentence) is repeated in the beginning of the following one

The stylistic function is to elucidate the notion, to concretise and to specify its semantics on a more modest level.

e.g.: Now he understood. he understood many things. One can be a person first. A man first and then a black man or a white man. (P.Abrahams)

e.g.: And a great desire for peace, peace of no matter what kind, swept through her.(A.Bennet)

See: <framing>, <types of repetition>, <syntactical SDs>

chain repetition

chain-repetition

. . . a, a . . . b, b. . .

several successive repetitions

The effect is that of the smoothly developing logical reasoning.

e.g.: ”To think better of it,” returned the gallant Blandois, “would be to slight a lady, to slight a lady would be to be deficient in chivalry towards the sex, and chivalry towards the sex is a part of my character.” (Ch.Dickens)

e.g.: Failure meant poverty, poverty meant squalor, squalor led, in the final stages, to the smells and stagnation of B. Inn Alley. (D. du Maurier)

See: <types of repetition>

ordinary repetition

. . . a, . . . a . . ., a . . .

. . a . ., . . a . ., . . a . .

no definite place in the sentence, the repeated unit occurs in various positions

The stylistic function is to emphasise both the logical and the emotional meaning of the reiterated word (phrase).

e.g.: Halfway along the right-hand side of the dark brown hall was a dark brown door with a dark brown settie beside it. (W.S.Gilbert)

e.g.: I really don’t see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. (O.Wilde)

See: <types of repetition>

successive repetition

. . . a, a, a . . .

a string of closely following each other reiterated units

The most emphatic type of repetition which signifies the peak of emotions of the speaker.

e.g.: Of her father’s being groundlessly suspected, she felt sure. Sure. Sure. (Ch.Dickens)

See: <types of repetition>

synonymical repetition

the repetition of the same idea by using synonymous words and phrases which by adding a slightly different nuance of meaning intensify the impact of the utterance

e.g.: ... are there not capital punishment sufficient in your statutes? Is there not blood enough upon your penal code? (Byron)

See: <types of repetition>

parallel construction

reiteration of the structure of several sentences (clauses), and not of their lexical “flesh”

almost always includes some type of lexical repetition, and such a convergence produces a very strong effect, <foregrounding> at one go logical, rhythmic, emotive and expressive aspects of the utterance.

e.g.: I notice that father’s is a large hand, but never a heavy one when it touches me, and that father’s is a rough voice but never an angry one when it speaks to me. (T.Dreiser)

See: <chiasmus>, <types of repetition>, <syntactical SDs>

chiasmus

reversed parallel construction

a) reversed parallelism of the structure of several sentences (clauses)

b) <inversion> of the first construction in the second part

e.g.: If the first sentence (clause) has a direct word order – SPO, the second one will have it inverted – OPS.

e.g.: Down dropped the breeze, // The sails dropped down. (Coleridge)

See: <parallel construction>, <inversion>, <types of repetition>, <syntactical SDs>