42. Figures of quality: metaphoric group. Types of metaphor.

Metaphor – expressive renaming on the basis of similarity, likeness, or affinity (real or imaginary) of two objects: the real object of speech and the one whose name is actually used.

Metaphors can be classified

1. according to their unexpectedness:

- genuine metaphors - absolutely unexpected;

- trite (dead, traditional) metaphors - are constantly used in speech and therefore are often fixed in dictionaries as expressive means (a ray of hope, floods of tears, a flight of imagination)

2. according to the function:

- nominative – when one name is substituted by another in order to extract a new name from the old word stock – the apple of the eye;

- cognitive – when objects are ascribed features of different objects – Time flies;

- generalizing – is used in naming some products – Burn;

- imaginary – presupposes that identifying lexical units are transferred into a predicate slot and as predicate units refer to other objects or a class of objects. In this case metaphor is a means of individualization, evaluation and discrimination of the shades of meaning - If Aitken found out about us the NY job would go up in a smoke.

3. according to their structure:

- simple – which is based on the actualization of one or several features common for two objects.

- sustained or prolonged – which is not limited to one feature that forms the central image but also comprises other features that develop the image in context.

Personification – is attributing human properties to lifeless objects, mostly to abstract notions, such as thoughts, actions, intentions, emotions, seasons of the year etc. (“the face of London", or "the pain of the ocean".)

The stylistic purposes of personification are varied. In poetry and fiction the purpose of personification is to help to visualize the description, to impart dynamic force to it or to reproduce the particular mood of the viewer.

Antonomasia - using a proper name as a common noun and vice versa using a descriptive word-combination instead of a proper noun. It can be of two types:

5. a usage of a proper name for a common noun (He is a real Sherlock Holms);

6. a usage of common nouns or their parts as proper names (Mr.Known-All);

Allegory – is a means of expressing abstract ideas through concrete pictures. The purpose of allegory as a stylistic device is to intensify the influence of logical contents of speech by adding to it an element of emotional character.

Proverbs may serve as simplest examples of allegory. Thus in the proverb All is not gold that glitters the question is not about the gold and its glitter, but about the fact that not always outer beauty speaks of inner value. (=Appearances are deceptive).

The above mentioned proverb is metaphoric allegory as it is based on similarity of abstract and generalized notions to concrete things and phenomena.

In metonymic allegory the name of some object which is a traditional material sign of some idea, i.e. its symbol, is used instead of its direct expression.

When, for instance, we hear the words It is time to beat your swords into ploughshares, we understand it as an appeal to stop hostilities in favour of peace.

Epithet - expresses characteristics of an object, both existing and imaginary. Its basic feature is its emotiveness and subjectivity: the characteristic attached to the object to qualify it is always chosen by the speaker himself.

e.g. Shining serenely as some immeasurable mirror beneath the smiling face of the heaven, the solitary ocean lay in unrippled silence. (Fr. Bullen).

Epithets can be classified from the point of view of their compositional structure. They may be divided into simple, compound, and phrase epithets.

Simple epithets are ordinary adjectives or adverbs (see ex. above).

Compound epithets are built like compound adjectives, e.g. heart-burning sight, cloud-shapen giant.

The tendency to cram into one language unit as much information as possible has led to new compositional models for epithets which are called phrase epithets.

e.g. ‘So think first of her, but not in the ‘I love you so that nothing will induce me to marry you’ fashion. (Galsworhty).

Another structural variety of the epithet is the one that is called reversed. It is based on the illogical relations between the modifier and the modified. e.g. the shadow of a smile, a devil of a job, a dog of a fellow, a long nightshirt of mackintosh etc. In all the examples it is the second word (a smile, a job, a fellow, a mackintosh) that is modified but it is formally placed in the position of a modifier, while the actual modifier is given the place of the modified word.

Semantically, there should be differentiated two main groups, the biggest of them being affective (or emotive proper). These epithets 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", "magnificent", "atrocious", etc.).

The second group - figurative, or transferred, epithets - is formed of metaphors, metonymies and similes (which will be discussed later) 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". Like metaphor, metonymy and simile, corresponding epithets are also based on similarity of characteristics of - two objects in the first case, on nearness of the qualified objects in the second one, and on their comparison in the third.

Epithets are used singly, in pairs, in chains, in two-step structures, and in inverted constructions, also as phrase-attributes.