Inversion

a syntactical <stylistic device> in which the direct word order is changed either completely so that the predicate precedes the subject (complete inversion), or partially so that the object precedes the subjectp-predicate pair (partial inversion)

e.g.: To a medical student the final examinations are something like death ... (R.Gordon) – [lang id=2]Для студента-медика выпускные экзамены – смерти подобны ... [/lang]

e.g.: Of all my old association. of all my old pursuits and hopes, of all the living and the dead world, this one poor soul alone comes natural to me. (Ch.Dickens)

e.g.: Women are not made for attack. Wait they must. (J.Conrad)

See: <chiasmus>, <syntactical SDs>

suspense

1) a deliberate postponement of the completion of the sentence with the help of embedded clauses (homogeneous members) separating the predicate from the subject and introducing less important facts and details first, while the expected information of major importance is reserved till the end of the sentence (utterance)

2) a compositional device which consists in arranging the matter of a communication in such a way that the less important, descriptive, subordinate parts are amassed at the beginning, the main idea being withheld till the end of the sentence (I.R.G)

e.g.: Mankind, says a Chinese manuscript, which my friend M. was obliging enough to read and explain to me, for the first seventy thousand ages ate their meat raw. (Ch.Lamb)

See: <periodic sentences>, <syntactical SDs>

detachment

detached construction

a <stylistic device> based on singling out a secondary member of the sentence with the help of punctuation (intonation)

e.g.: I have to beg you nearly killed, ingloriously, in a jeep accident. (I.Shaw)

e.g.: I have to beg you for money. Daily. (S.Lewis)

e.g.: She was crazy about you. In the beginning. (R.P.Warren)

See: <attachment>, <syntactical SDs>

completeness of sentence structure

includes: <ellipsis>, <apokoinu constructions>, <break-in-the-narrative> or <aposiopesis>

See: <types of connection>, <syntactical SDs>

ellipsis

a deliberate omission of at least one member of the sentence

e.g.: What! all my pretty chickens and their dam at one fell swoop? (W.Shakespeare)

e.g.: In manner, close and dry. In voice, husky and low. In face, watchful behind a blind. (Ch.Dickens)

e.g.: His forehead was narrow, his face wide, his head large, and his nose all one side. (Ch.Dickens)

See: <completeness of sentence structure>

apokoinu constructions

the omission of the pronominal (adverbial) connective

- create a blend of the main and the subordinate clauses so that

- the predicative or the object of the first one is simultaneously used as the subject of the second one

e.g.: There was a door led into the kitchen. (Sh.Anderson)

e.g.: He was the man killed that deer. (R.P.Warren)

e.g.: There was no breeze came through the door. (E.Hemingway)

See: <completeness of sentence structure>

break-in-the-narrative

aposiopesis

“a stopping short for rhetorical effect”

- used mainly in the dialogue or in the other forms of narrative imitating spontaneous oral speech because the speaker’s emotions prevent him from finishing the sentence

e.g.: You just come home or I’ll ...

e.g.: Good intentions, but ...

e.g.: If you continue your intemperate way of living, in six months’ time ...

e.g.: What I had seen of Patti didn’t really contradict Kitty’s view of her: a girl who means well, but. (D.Uhnak)

See: <completeness of sentence structure>

types of connection

include: <polysyndeton>, <asyndeton>, <attachment>

See: <completeness of sentence structure>

polysyndeton

repeated use of conjunctions

- is to strengthen the idea of equal logical/emotive importance of connected sentences.

e.g.: By the time he had got all the bottles and dishes and knives and forks and glasses and plates and spoons and things piled up on big trays, he was getting very hot, and red in the face, and annoyed.(A.Tolkien)

e.g.: Bella soaped his face and rubbed his face, and soaped his hands and rubbed his hands, and splashed him, and rinsed him, and towelled him, until he was as red as beetroot. (Ch.Dickens)

Ant.: <asyndeton>

See: <attachment>, <types of connection>

asyndeton

deliberate omission of conjunctions, cutting off connecting words

- helps to create the effect of terse, energetic, active prose.

e.g.: With these hurried words Mr. Bob Sawyer pushed the postboy on one side, jerked his friend into the vehicle, slammed the door, put up the steps, wafered the bill on the street-door, locked it, put the key into his pocket, jumped into the dickey, gave the word for starting. (Ch.Dickens)

Ant.: <polysyndeton>

See: <attachment>, <types of connection>

attachment

separating the second part of the utterance from the first one by full stop though their semantic and grammatical ties remain very strong

e.g.: It wasn’t his fault. It was yours. And mine. I now humbly beg you to give me the money with which to buy meals for you to eat. And hereafter do remember it: the next time I shan’t beg. I shall simply starve. (S.Lewis)

e.g.: Prison is where she belongs. And my husband agrees one thousand per cent. (T.Capote)

e.g.: He is a very deliberate, careful guy and we trust each other completely. With a few reservations. (D.Uhnak)

See: <detachment>, <types of connection>, <punctuation>, <syntactical SDs>

lexico-syntactical stylistic devices

lexico-syntactical SDs

certain structures, whose emphasis depends not only on the arrangement of sentence members but also on the lexico-semantic aspect of the utterance

- include: <antithesis>, <climax>, <anticlimax>, <simile>, <litotes>, <periphrasis>

See: <lexical SDs>, <cluster SDs>, <syntactical SDs>, <stylistic device>

antithesis

a semantically complicated <parallel construction>, the two parts of which are semantically opposite to each other

- is to stress the heterogenity of the described phenomenon, to show that the latter is a dialectical unity of two (or more) opposing features.

e.g.: Some people have much to live on, and little to live for. (O.Wilde)

e.g.: If we don’t know who gains by his death we do know who loses by it. (A.Christie)

e.g.: Mrs. Nork had a large home and a small husband. (S.Lewis)

e.g.: In marriage the upkeep of woman is often the downfall of man. (S.Evans)

e.g.: Don’t use big words. They mean so little. (O.Wilde)

See: <lexico-syntactical SDs>

climax

gradation

a semantically complicated <parallel construction>, in which each next word combination (clause, sentence) is logically more important or emotionally stronger and more explicit

Three types:

@ logical climax

a three-step <climax> (the most widely spread model), in which intensification of logical importance, of emotion or quantity (size, dimensions) is gradually rising step by step

- is based on the relative importance of the component parts looked at from the point of view of the concepts embodied in them

e.g.: Better to borrow, better to beg, better to die! (Ch.Dickens)

e.g.: Like a well, like a vault, like a tomb, the prison had no knowledge of the brightness outside. (Ch.Dickens)

e.g.: For that one instant there was no one else in the room, in the house, in the world, besides themselves.(M.Wilson)

@ emotive climax

a two-step <climax>, in which the second part repeats the first one and is further strengthened by an intensifier

- is based on the relative emotional tension produced by words with emotive meaning

e.g.: He was so helpless, so very helpless. (W.Deeping)

e.g.: She felt better, immensely better. (W.Deeping)

e.g.: I have been so unhappy here, so very very unhappy. (Ch.Dickens)

@ quantitative climax

an evident increase in the volume of the corresponding concepts

e.g.: They looked at hundreds of houses; they climbed thousands of stairs; they inspected innumerable kitchens.(S.Maugham)

e.g.: Little by little, bit by bit, and day by day, and year by year the baron got the worst of some disputed question. (Ch.Dickens)

@

e.g.: We were all in all to one another, it was the morning of life, it was bliss, it was frenzy, it was everything else of that sort in the highest degree. (Ch.Dickens)

e.g.: I am firm, thou art obstinate, he is pig-headed. (B.Charlestone)

e.g.: No tree, no shrub, no blade of grass that was not owned. (J. Galsworthy)

Ant.: <anticlimax>

Syn.: <climax>, <gradation>

See: <lexico-syntactical SDs>

anticlimax

a <climax> suddenly interrupted by an unexpected turn of the thought which defeats expectations of the reader (listener) and ends in complete semantic reversal of the emphasised idea

e.g.: It was appalling – and soon forgotten. (J.Galsworthy)

e.g.: He was unconsolable – for an afternoon. (J.Galsworthy)

e.g.: Women have a wonderful instinct about things. They can discover everything except the obvious. (O.Wilde)

Ant.: <climax>

See: <lexico-syntactical SDs>

simile

an imaginative comparison of two unlike objects belonging to two different classes on the grounds of similarity of some quality

The one which is compared is called the tenor, the one with which it is compared, is called the vehicle. The tenor and the vehicle form the two semantic poles of the simile, which are connected by one of the following link words: “like”, “as”, “as though”, “as like”, “such as”, as ... as”, etc.

e.g.: She is like a rose.

e.g.: He stood immovable like a rock in a torrent. (J.Reed)

e.g.: His muscles are hard as rock. (T.Capote)

e.g.: The conversation she began behaved like green logs: they fumed but would not fire. (T.Capote)

Compare: <comparison>

See: <metaphor>, <epic simile> or <Homeric simile>, <lexico-syntactical SDs>

(logical) comparison

an ordinary comparison of two objects belonging to the same classes

e.g.: She is like her mother.

Compare: <simile>

See: <lexico-syntactical SDs>

the tenor

the vehicle

See: <simile>

epic simile

Homeric simile

extended <simile>, sustained expression of likeness

See: <simile>

litotes

a two-component structure in which two negations are joined to give a possessive evaluation

- the first component 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 unpretty. (K.Kesey)

e.g.: It was not unnatural if Gilbert felt a certain embarrassment. (E.Waugh)

e.g.: The idea was not totally erroneous. The thought did not displease me. (I.Murdoch)

See: <understatement>, <lexico-syntactical SDs>

periphrasis

a) using a roundabout form of expression instead of a simpler one

b) using a more or less complicated syntactical structure instead of a word

They are classified into:

- <figurative periphrasis> or <metaphoric periphrasis> or <metonymic periphrasis>

- <logical periphrasis> or <euphemistic periphrasis>

See: <lexico-syntactical SDs>

Source:

figurative periphrasis

a <periphrasis> that is made of phrase-metonymies or phrase-metaphors

- is to convey a purely individual perception of the described object

e.g.: The hospital was crowded with the surgically interesting products of the fighting in Africa. \[=wounded\] (I.Shaw)

e.g.: His huge leather chairs were kind to the femurs. (R.P.Warren)

e.g.: I took my obedient feet away from him. (W.S.Gilbert)

See: <metaphor>, <metonymy>, <periphrasis>

metaphoric periphrasis

metonymic periphrasis

See: <figurative periphrasis>

logical periphrasis

euphemistic periphrasis

a phrase synonymic with the words which were substituted by <periphrasis>

- offers more polite qualification instead of a coarser one (euphemistic)

e.g.: Mr. Du Pont was dressed in the conventional disguise \[the suit \] with which Brooks Brothers cover the shame of American millionaires \[the paunch (belly)\]. (The Morning Star)

e.g.: I am thinking an unmentionable thing about your mother. (I.Shaw)